CITATION CORPORATION
2 Office Park Circle, Suite 204
Birmingham, AL 35223
Contact: Stanley B. Atkins
205-871-5731

March 10, 1997

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Citation Corporation (Nasdaq: CAST) announced today that it has approved a $12 million capital expansion of its Citation Foam Casting Company in Columbiana, AL. which will result in approximately doubling the two-shift capacity of the unit.

The expansion, which will begin in March, includes the addition of a 10-ton melting furnace and a new "state of the art" lost foam molding line and supporting equipment. The furnace and new line will be installed at the unit's existing facility in Columbiana.

Installation phase is expected to be complete by the end of November 1997 and ramp-up will commence in December. When the expansion is complete, approximately 105 additional employees will be hired. Current employment is 115 persons. Sales in fiscal 1996, ending September 29, 1996 were $12.3 million.

According to Jim LeCroy, Vice President and General Manager of the division, contracts covering more than a full shift of production on the new line are already sold. The new line will produce castings for use on light and heavy trucks, electrical motors and diesel engine parts. "The new jobs," he said, "will be prototyped on a pilot production line installed in the facility in fiscal 1996 at a cost of $1.5 million."

The new molding line will be able to produce approximately 350 pounds of castings per mold versus approximately 250 pounds per mold in the existing production line. The new line has 36 inch square flasks, each 44 inches deep.

The lost foam process, sometimes called evaporative casting, is a unique method of producing gray and ductile iron castings. In the process, Styrofoam replicas of the castings to be produced are coated with a ceramic material and placed in a mold with loose sand compacted around each. Molten iron is poured into the mold and as the hot metal contacts the Styrofoam, it causes the Styrofoam to evaporate. The iron cools, leaving a precision engineered gray or ductile iron casting.

The advantage of the process is the ability to mold more complex designs and more precise shapes than in conventional casting methods and thus reduce or, in some cases eliminate the usual machining required to make the iron casting into a final shape.

Citation began initial production of lost foam castings in the late 1980's and established Citation Foam as a separate division in 1991. With the expansion, Citation Foam is one of the largest independent iron lost foam operations in the world.

Engineering for the project and design and manufacture of the lost foam production line are being done by Vulcan Engineering Company of Birmingham, AL.

Citation Corporation is a metal components producer for capital goods and durable goods industries with 16 manufacturing divisions located in eight states. Fiscal 1996 sales were $487.8 million and Citation has approximately 5,600 employees.