Georgetown, Kentucky, USA, March 1, 2001 - Aichi Steel announced today with Koyo Seiko Co. that its subsidiary Aichi USA, Inc. (AUSA) would jointly establish a forging company here with Koyo's subsidiary Koyo Corporation of USA (KCU). AUSA will hold a (51%) majority stake in the company.

The new company, to be called Kentucky Advanced Forge, LLC (Ichiro Kanadoko, president and vice president of AUSA), will manufacture and market forged crude materials for precision shapes in order to achieve mass production of those materials. It will be established within AUSA's forging material manufacturing subsidiary, Louisville Forge and Gear Works, LLC (LFG) in Kentucky.

Kentucky Advanced Forge was established on February 28th, with $7.6 million in capital investment and 13 employees. It plans to produce 4,000 tons or 16 million units per year.