Wescast Awarded General Motors Programs

    BRANTFORD, Ontario--Jan. 30, 2001--Wescast Industries Inc. has been chosen to supply machined iron exhaust manifolds for several of GM's new engine programs to be introduced over the next few years.
    Included will be manifolds for the new Electron and High Value V6 engine programs, to be shipped to the St. Catharines and Tonawanda Engine Plants respectively. These engines will be featured in various Epsilon and mid-luxury class vehicles starting in 2003. In addition these engines will be used on the GMT 235 platform for the next generation of minivans.
    Wescast has also been awarded a portion of the premium V8 program. This engine will be available on a range of Cadillac models including the Seville and Evoq.
    "We are very excited about this new business, as it demonstrates our ability to continue to successfully grow our market share in North America," said Ray Finnie, President and CEO of Wescast Industries Inc. "The programs commence production in mid 2002, and will fully ramp up by 2005. The people at Wescast work diligently to continue to be General Motors' supplier of choice," noted Finnie.
    Wescast Industries Inc. is the world's largest supplier of exhaust manifolds for passenger cars and light trucks. The Company designs, develops, casts, and machines high-quality iron and steel exhaust manifolds for automotive OEMs. Wescast operates seven production facilities in North America, and three sales and design offices in North America and Europe. The Company is recognized worldwide for its quality products, innovative design solutions, and highly committed workforce.

Advisory
    Certain information regarding the Company set forth in this document, including management's assessment of the Company's future plans and operations, may constitute forward-looking statements under applicable securities law and necessarily involve risks associated with the automotive industry, production, marketing, and transportation such as loss of market, volatility of prices, currency fluctuations, environmental risks, competition from other producers and ability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources; as a consequence, actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements.