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The Timken Company is Authorized to Purchase Shares

21 April 1998

The Timken Company is Authorized to Purchase Shares

    CANTON, Ohio, April 21 -- The Timken Company
today announced board approval of a new 1998 common stock purchase plan, which
succeeds the company's 1996 plan.
    The company's 1996 common stock purchase plan had authorized the company
to buy back, in the open market at prevailing market prices, up to two million
shares of common stock to be held as treasury shares and used for specific
purposes.  The company has purchased all of the two million shares of common
stock it was authorized to purchase under the 1996 common stock purchase plan.
As of April 13, 1998, approximately 62 million shares of common stock were
outstanding.
    The company's 1998 common stock purchase plan authorizes the company to
buy, in the open market at prevailing market prices, up to four million shares
of common stock, which are to be held as treasury shares and used for specific
purposes.  The company may exercise this authorization until December 31,
2001.
    Shares of common stock purchased pursuant to the 1998 common stock
purchase plan will be used as follows:  to fund qualified employee benefit
plans maintained by the company and its direct and indirect wholly owned
domestic subsidiaries; to satisfy the company's obligations under its equity-
based incentive plans; to provide shares for the company's dividend
reinvestment plan and for use in making future acquisitions; and to deliver
shares under existing and future equity-based compensation arrangements to
associates and directors of the company and to associates of direct and
indirect subsidiaries of the company.
    The Timken Company is a leading international manufacturer of
highly engineered bearings and alloy steels.  The company employs some 21,000
people worldwide and reported 1997 sales of more than $2.6 billion.

SOURCE  The Timken Company