Belden Inc. has announced that it will close its telecommunications cable plant in Kingston, Ontario, by September 2003 and will take several additional actions to adjust the company's product lines and capacity.

Belden acquired the plant from CDT's NORCOM wire and cable business. The products now manufactured in the Kingston plant will be transferred to other Belden facilities, including Belden's communications plant in Phoenix, Ariz.

Belden purchased the Kingston plant on Oct. 31, 2002. The company recorded a liability for severance and other plant closing costs of approximately $13 million at the time of the purchase.

"Due to the severe decline in the demand by all the major North American communications companies, there is significant excess capacity in the industry for telecommunications wire and cable," says C. Baker Cunningham, president of Belden. "The closing of the Kingston plant and the other actions we are announcing today are necessary for us to remain competitive. We regret that conditions in the market have resulted in the loss of many good jobs."

Belden has also conducted a strategic review of its product lines in light of lower levels of demand, technology changes that affect customer needs, and industry trends. As a result, Belden will:

* Exit manufacturing and marketing of long-line, singlemode optical fiber cable,
* Discontinue certain minor, non-strategic products whose profit opportunities have become unattractive,
* Dispose of certain excess and inefficient equipment used in the manufacturing of telecommunications cable,
* Rationalize production among certain facilities to achieve greater efficiency.

These additional actions will result in charges of $45 million recognized in the fourth quarter of 2002, or about $1.20 per share. The non-cash portion of the charge is approximately $34 million and predominantly relates to the write-off of machinery and equipment. The majority of the $11 million cash charge is severance and other personnel costs at various international locations. The 2002 revenue from the products being discontinued is about $15 million.

"In our recent planning process, we reemphasized our commitment to higher value-added segments of the market and identified opportunities to serve these markets at a lower cost," continues Cunningham. "We expect savings from these actions to more than pay for the cash portion of the charge within a year."

Belden is based in St. Louis, MO. For more information visit www.belden.com.