Hexcel Announces Agreement to provide Carbon Fiber for USEC's American Centrifuge Plant

Business Wire, August 20, 2007

STAMFORD, Conn. -- Hexcel Corporation (NYSE: HXL) today announced that it had entered into an agreement with USEC Inc (NYSE: USU) and Alliant Techsystems Inc (NYSE: ATK) to supply carbon fiber required for USEC's planned American Centrifuge Plant (ACP) for the enrichment of uranium for commercial nuclear power reactors. The centrifuge method of enrichment will use over 11,500 rotor tubes and is more cost effective than the alternative gas diffusion enrichment process. Traditionally the rotors were made of aluminum alloy, steel or fiberglass, but switching to stronger and lighter weight carbon fiber allows for increased efficiency.

In September 2006 ATK announced that it had started demonstration and qualification work on composite rotor tubes for the ACP. USEC received a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to construct the ACP in April 2007. Hexcel currently estimates that carbon fiber sales for the initial 3.8 million separative work units (SWU) plant will be approximately $100 million starting in late 2008, with the majority of deliveries likely to be in the 2010 and 2011 depending on USEC and ATK's manufacturing schedule. The agreement contemplates that USEC also may purchase significant quantities of additional carbon fiber product needed for the ACP.

Mr. David E. Berges, Hexcel's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said "Hexcel is very pleased to be part of the USEC project which has the potential for additional production to follow. We also welcome this opportunity to reinforce our long standing relationship as a supplier to ATK. We previously announced that we are targeting increasing the penetration of our carbon fiber into high-end industrial applications, and the USEC application complements this strategy. Our capacity additions for carbon fiber will be capable of supporting both aerospace and this segment of the industrial market interchangeably."

Certain statements contained in this release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Achieving the estimated level of Hexcel's sales for the ACP involves a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from estimates, among which are the actual requirements of USEC and ATK for Hexcel's products for the ACP and disruptions in the supply chain that could lead to Hexcel's inability to supply products. For a description of other factors see Hexcel's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Hexcel undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements.

Hexcel Corporation is a leading advanced structural materials company. It develops, manufactures and markets lightweight, high-performance structural materials, including carbon fibers, reinforcements, prepregs, honeycomb, matrix systems, adhesives and composite structures, used in commercial aerospace, space and defense and industrial applications.