Wescast Earns ISO/TS 16949 Certification

    BRANTFORD, ONTARIO--July 2, 2002--Wescast Industries Inc. (TSX:WCS.A) has received ISO/TS 16949 certification at all five of its Ontario manufacturing facilities. The certification recognizes Wescast's strong commitment to customer requirements and quality.
    The ISO/TS 16949 standard is an ISO Technical Specification aligning existing US, Canadian, German, French and Italian automotive quality system standards within the global automotive industry. The goal of ISO/TS 16949 is the development of quality systems that provide for continuous improvement, emphasizing defect prevention and the reduction of variation and waste in the supply chain. The benefits include improved supplier product and process quality, additional confidence for global sourcing by automotive companies and a common, consistent quality systems approach for suppliers to the automotive industry.
    "We are proud to achieve this internationally recognized standard of quality," stated Ray Finnie, President and CEO of Wescast Industries Inc. "The certification is significant to our current and future customers and will increase our global presence. This natural progression from our QS-9000 certification is a testament to the high level of commitment of Wescast employees."
    ISO/TS 16949 has been accepted as equivalent to QS-9000 (North America), VDA 6.1 (Germany), AVSQ (Italy) and EAQF (France) automotive quality standards. It was written by the IATF, an international group of vehicle manufacturers including Ford, General Motors, DaimlerChrysler, PSA Peugeot-Citroen, Renault SA, Fiat, BMW and Volkswagen, plus various national trade associations. Japanese and Korean manufacturers are expected to recognize ISO/TS 16949 as verification of a quality system when Edition 2 is released in mid 2002.

    About Wescast Industries Inc.:

    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 exhaust manifolds for automotive OEMs. Wescast has sales and design centres in Canada, the United States and Germany, as well as sales representation in the United Kingdom, France and Japan. The Company operates six production facilities in North America, including a 49% interest in United Machining Inc., an accredited Minority supplier in Michigan, and a 50% joint venture interest in Weslin Autoipari Rt., a Hungarian based supplier of cast iron exhaust manifolds and turbo charger housings for the European light vehicle market. The Company is recognized worldwide for its quality products, innovative design solutions and highly committed workforce.

    Advisory

    Wescast and its representatives may periodically make written or oral statements that are "forward-looking", including statements included in this news release and in our filings with applicable Securities commissions and in reports to our stockholders. These statements may be identified by words such as "believe", "anticipate," "project," "expect," "intend" or other similar expressions, and include all statements which address operating performance, events or developments that we expect or anticipate may occur in the future (including statements relating to future sales or earnings expectations, volume growth, awarded sales contracts and earnings per share expectations or statements expressing general optimism about future operating results). Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause unanticipated events and actually evolve to be materially different from those either expressed or implied. These factors include, but are not limited to, 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. For more detailed information regarding these risks you may refer to Wescast's publicly filed documents with applicable Canadian securities authorities and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Wescast undertakes no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements.