Driving towards a Clean, Safe and Sustainable Welding Industry June, 2011 Strength Through Cooperation

Who We Are and What We Do? ESAB is a world leading company in advanced welding and cutting solutions ESAB has a product and geographical spread that is unrivalled and occupies a leading position in the majority of the worlds markets. ESAB has sales representation covering five continents. ESAB has over 30 manufacturing locations serving the global business ESAB has four product Divisions, Consumables, Equipment, Automation and Cutting

Our Vision & Values Our Vision Values “To be the global leader, to be our customers’ preferred partner and the global authority in welding and cutting.” Values Integrity Experience Innovation Partnership “Our brand is at the heart of everything that we do.” Michael Foster, CEO ESAB

History & Operation

Over a Hundred Years of Experience From the company’s foundation in Sweden in 1904 and the development of the world’s first welding electrode, ESAB has grown into a global leader with sales exceeding $2 billion annually.

ESAB’s Parent Company Charter International plc, headquartered in Ireland, owns (through a number of intermediate companies) two international engineering businesses, one focused on welding, cutting and automation (‘ESAB’), and the other on air and gas handling (‘Howden’).

Market Profile – Welding & Cutting 2010: About $13 Billion Globally By end user segment Energy Oil, gas & processes 9.5% Power 4.2% Petrochemicals 5.8% Pipelines & pipe mills 6.0% Total energy 25.5% Notes: 1 The global welding and cutting market in which ESAB operates excludes welding robots and automation products.

Global Presence

Manufacturing Footprint Worldwide St Petersburg Laxå Perstorp Opole Katowice Karben Vamberk Mór Traverse City Ithiman Ashtabula Terni Hanover Weihai Changwon Florence Zhangjiagang Wuxi (Romar) Taratala Shanghai (Malu) Monterrey Khardah, Calcutta Nagpur Irungattukotai Ambattur, Chennai Singapore (Romar) Jakarta Belo Horizonte Pompeya St Luis Chascomus Welding consumables factories Cutting systems factories Cutting and welding equipment factory Welding equipment factories Welding equipment & consumables factory

15 Process Centers and 5 Consumable R&D Centers Sweden Brazil Argentina Spain UAE Germany Russia China Singapore France Existing Process Centre USA Poland Czech Rebulic UK India Gothenburg Hanover Zhang Jiagang Chennai Belo Horizonte

Global Presence for Local Customers

EHS & Sustainability

ESAB Strategic Goal Leader in EHS & Quality Customer focus, globally Effective people in a performance culture Establish global market leadership Financial stability Environmental, Health & Safety is defined as the no 1 goal in ESAB. The reason for this is our strong conviction that business will not be long term sustainable if we fail to keep our employees safe and minimize our negative impact on the environment.

Sustainable Vision Our sustainability vision for ESAB is a company that: has an impact on the environment that does not contribute to biosphere deterioration manages human resources in a way that makes our intellectual capital continuously grow contributes to local and global economy development makes flawless products, needed by society and safe to use delivers financial results that satisfies shareholders over business cycles To enable sustainable development, we have perfect ways of process controls and waste elimination in all our production and operations.

If you remove waste, you focus on adding value The ESAB Way of Lean What is Lean?? The continuous removal of all types of waste from all parts of the business. If you remove waste, you focus on adding value

Long-term Lean Strategy Lean Manufacturing Lean Enterprise Business Excellence

We keep the promises we make and improve what we do the ESAB Way!

What is the ESAB Way? The ESAB Way is Strength through Cooperation supported by the established principles that are the decision making behaviors and actions required to support the ESAB Vision, Brand, and Values. The “ESAB Way” is the guideline that leads us to the accomplishment of our objectives. There are 12 principles of the ESAB Way, supporting our Brand and giving us guidance in our daily operation.

The ESAB Way Principles – Supporting the ESAB Brand We strive through our daily activity to continuously improve the safety of our working environment. We understand our customer needs and make realistic commitments to meet them. Corporate planning through the Policy Deployment Process will set common goals and communicate our business aims. We manage with a long term view whilst meeting our short term commitments. We will invest in, and build the capability of our people and organization to deliver our vision. We want our people to know what is expected of them. Their performance is reviewed and development is encouraged. Our processes are aligned against the principles of pull and smoothing, aligned to customer based takt time. We build quality into our processes to avoid creating or passing on defects. We use standardization as our foundation for continuous improvements supported by visual management to expose problems and highlight opportunities. We “Go and See” to learn and to understand our opportunities for improvements. We share best practice and communicate our ideas to eliminate waste across the value chain. All our decisions are data driven and guided by our principles. With acknowledgement to Unipart for help developing the ‘how’ of the ESAB way

Customer Focus – At the Core of Our Brand Customer Focus – We must understand the needs of our customer, strive to find innovative solutions for them and be recognized as industry leaders. Product Innovation – Our product innovation process must be market led and help build our authority brand image. Operational excellence – We must be flexible and reliable, delivering consistent quality at the right cost – striving for best in class cost in the industry. Customer Focus – We must understand the needs of our customer, strive to find innovative solutions for them and be recognized as industry leaders. Product Innovation – Our product innovation process must be market led and help build our authority brand image. This can go beyond simply innovating new products, to developing leading edge product service offers Operational excellence – We must be flexible and reliable, delivering consistent quality at the right cost – striving for best in class cost in the industry. Key factors identified by the Customer Focus Project team, which are critical to the delivery of successful customer focus at ESAB: Becoming easy to deal with Segmentation Channel development Prioritizing customer Customer relationship management Measuring customer focus

Technology is Productivity

Our History 1900 1920 1960 1980 1940 2000 2000s 1994 ESAB acquired by Charter Plc 1962 Cutting facility moved to Rodheim 1904 ESAB Founded 1931 Replaced dipped electrodes with extruded Began shift from services provider to manufacturer 1942 Established Laxa factory 1938 Acquired Kjellberg-Eberle in Frankfurt (cutting) 1970s Decline of industries in Europe led ESAB into serious financial difficulties 1971 First sales office opened in USA in Detroit, in collaboration with Sandvik 1975 Cutting facility moved from Rodheim to Karben, Germany 1980s Acquisition spree. During this period ESAB acquired 26 companies in Europe + USA, and divested 5 1984 Acquisition of Airco, opening of office in Chicago 1989 Acquisitions of L-Tec and Alloy Rods in the US ca. 1991 Following the fall Eskilson proposes to acquire manufacturing facilities in Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic 1990s Acquisitions of OZAS, Baildon and FERSAR in Europe Acquisition of CONARCO in South America Acquisition of Alcotec in USA By the time of Oscar's death, ESAB had subsidiaries in Finland, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and UK Rapid growth and expansion. Started journey from multi-national to global company 2000s Significant growth of ESAB India and South-America 2006/08 ESAB China: Zhangjiagang and Weihai factories open The long term history of ESAB in the welding industry - with the aim of putting ESAB in historical context and show its strong heritage, acknowledge the depth and history. ESAB founded 1904 inventing the electrode especially for boiler applications. During the 30-40’s focused on setting up sales companies, During the early part of the century ESAB (or companies that ESAB later bought) invented the first nickel and stainless electrodes, developed the cored wire process (put the flux on the inside!) and then the SAW process to get higher weld deposition rates. Union Carbide, based in Florence, South Carolina invented the plasma cutting process as well as the steel scarfing process. During the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s ESAB acquired a number of welding companies, many with strong domestic positions, mostly driven by local production capacity many in the then emerging Eastern block economies – check the dates of the acquisitions These companies were managed as independent, quite autonomous businesses, and were quite successful in their own right. [On a time line, get historical dump from 2004 copy of Svetsaren, also historical tuff from Steve Engel (Union Carbide / Florence) and and Dan Spackman (Alloy Rods / Hanover). Place on a timeline with pictures.]

Our Innovations 1900 1920 1960 1980 1940 2000 2010 New advanced consumables & equipment innovations 1904 Electrode (MMA) 1937 Unionmelt - sub arc welding 1938 Gravity Welding 1944 Heliarc (TIG) 1947 MIG/MAG 1955 Plasma Cutting 1960 Flux-Cored Wire 1979 Narrow Gap Welding 1982 LMA Electrodes (Low Moisture Absorption) 1989 Adaptive Butt Welding Marathon Pac 1995 High Speed Cored Wire 1996 Friction Stir Welding 1997 Laser Bevel Cutting 2004 Aristorod 2010 High speed sub arc welding 2007 Hybrid Laser Arc Welding The long term history of ESAB in the welding industry - with the aim of putting ESAB in historical context and show its strong heritage, acknowledge the depth and history. ESAB founded 1904 inventing the electrode especially for boiler applications. During the 30-40’s focused on setting up sales companies, During the early part of the century ESAB (or companies that ESAB later bought) invented the first nickel and stainless electrodes, developed the cored wire process (put the flux on the inside!) and then the SAW process to get higher weld deposition rates. Union Carbide, based in Florence, South Carolina invented the plasma cutting process as well as the steel scarfing process. During the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s ESAB acquired a number of welding companies, many with strong domestic positions, mostly driven by local production capacity many in the then emerging Eastern block economies – check the dates of the acquisitions These companies were managed as independent, quite autonomous businesses, and were quite successful in their own right. [On a time line, get historical dump from 2004 copy of Svetsaren, also historical tuff from Steve Engel (Union Carbide / Florence) and and Dan Spackman (Alloy Rods / Hanover). Place on a timeline with pictures.] 2006 Telbo

Social Responsibility Human Care ESAB offers a comprehensive range of Personal Protection Equipment, covering everything from head to foot, for both welding & cutting and general engineering applications. All ESAB products conform to all relevant EU legislations and standards. Helmets, masks and screens Filter & spatter lenses Respiratory equipment Spectacles, goggles & visors Welding curtains & blankets Welding clothing & overalls Welding gloves Safety footwear …… ESAB offers a comprehensive range of Personal Protection Equipment, covering everything from head to foot, for both welding & cutting and general engineering applications. All ESAB products conform to all relevant EU legislations and standards. As Health and Safety Standards improves year on year, so does ESAB's commitment to providing a product portfolio capable of meeting the ever increasing demands of the markets we serve. As you would expect from a leading supplier of welding & cutting solutions, the ESAB product range is second to none for quality and reliability.

Social Responsibility – The Environment Copper-free Solid Wire with ASCTM Features MAG Welding at New Performance Levels Consistent welding performance Stable arc with low feeding force Excellent arc ignition High current applicability Extremely low overall spatter Trouble-free feedability, even at high wire feed speeds and lengthy feed distances Low fume emission OK AristoRodTM with latest Advanced Surface Characteristics (ASC) takes all your welding applications to new levels of performance and ensure all round efficiency. OK AristoRodTM MAG welding wires with Advanced Surface Characteristics resist corrosion during storage, improves feedability and arc stability and also reduces contact tip wear to a level to the very best copper-coated wires.

Social Responsibility Packaging Solutions ESAB packaging solutions for consumables combine production efficiency with environmental responsibility. The Marathon Pac™ wire delivery system can offer truly non-stop production in robot applications, meaning zero downtime for spool changes and zero downtime for drum changes when in the Endless set-up. VacPac™ No re-baking - no quivers - no holding ovens VacPac™ vacuum packaging eliminates the costly re-baking and handling routines normally associated with the storage of electrodes, by preventing airborne moisture absorption. Simple and convenient to use.

Strength Through Cooperation

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