Letter from the Site Leader

Seadrift Operations Site Leader — Bart Gliatta

It’s no secret that 2004 brought with it two of the biggest challenges ever faced by our industry — skyrocketing energy costs and an uncertain economy.

These influences ushered in a ripple effect that was felt not only here at our operations but in our community, too.

Despite these conditions, our company and site have been able to stabilize ourselves and turn in one of our best years ever in environmental, health and safety performance, production goals and support for our community.

Seadrift Operations employees were committed to continued improvement on an already top tier safety performance, and I am proud to say that we continued our stretch of zero injuries resulting in days away from work, which now extends to nearly three years. Our environmental performance also improved, as we reduced our leaks, breaks and spills by 25% and continued to reduce our emissions.

Energy costs continued to increase, but here at Seadrift, we were able to offset such rising costs through energy conservation by reducing our energy use per pound of product by over 25% over 2003! This was on top of a 13% improvement from 2002 to 2003. One thing we learned during the previous few years is that if we are going to make it through tough times, we need to control the things we can. In the case of energy, we can control how much we use through energy conservation.

The cost of energy here on the Gulf Coast relative to other parts of the world appears to be an issue that we will need to deal with for a long time. Our greatest challenge at Seadrift Operations will be to maintain our competitiveness into the future.

A number of our operations set annual production records in 2004, which serves as a testament to our employees’ ingenuity and hard work in the face of growing demand.

On behalf of all Seadrift Operations employees, thank you for the support of this facility over the last 50 years and I hope you enjoy reading our 2004 Site Public Report. Our commitment is to continue to operate our facilities responsibly and safely and to be a viable and strong member of the community.

Bart Gliatta
Seadrift Operations Site Leader