Linamar & Wescast Announce First Joint European Casting Contract

17 February 2000

Linamar Corporation & Wescast Industries Inc. Announce First Joint European Casting Contract

    GUELPH, Ontario & BRANTFORD, Ontario--Feb. 17, 2000--(TSE:WCS.A.)

    Weslin Industries Inc., a joint venture of Linamar Corporation (TSE:LNR) and Wescast Industries Inc. (TSE:WCS.A) , has recently been selected to supply differential case castings for Volkswagen AG in Europe.
    "We are very excited about our new relationship with Volkswagen and Audi," says Wescast President and CEO, Ray Finnie. "These components are a perfect opportunity for us to apply our leading design and focused production capability for a new customer in Europe and, at the same time, expand our customer and product base."
    Weslin will begin supplying these components to a VW plant in Kassel, Germany in 2001. VW will require nearly one-half million parts per year. The drive train components will be used in a number of widely known VW and Audi vehicles such as the Audi A6, Audi A4 and VW Passat, among other vehicles. Weslin is currently developing the design and preparing for production with Audi's technical staff.
    "We are very pleased to see an order received so quickly for Weslin. The contract confirms our belief that this joint venture of two world class companies will be very well received in Europe", says Linda Hasenfratz, President, Linamar Corporation.
    Weslin Industries is a European joint-venture operation between Wescast Industries Inc. and Linamar Corporation and was established in 1999 for the sales, design and manufacture of iron automotive castings for the European market. Linamar Corporation is a global manufacturer of precision-machined components, assemblies, and castings primarily for the automotive industry. Wescast Industries Inc. is a world leader in manufacturing iron exhaust manifolds for the light vehicle and truck industry. Both companies are headquartered in southwestern Ontario.

Advisory

    Certain information regarding the Companies set forth in this document, including management's assessment of the Companies' future plans and operations, may constitute forward-looking statements under applicable securities law and necessarily involve risks associated with oil and gas exploration, production, marketing, and transportation such as loss of market, volatility of prices, currency fluctuations, imprecision of reserves estimates, 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.