John Dillon Market Quotations

Prices on several of our key products have started to move up in the U.S. and some of our major Asian markets are beginning to recover from the economic problems of last year, ... Overall, business has clearly improved, and we are optimistic that the price increases we announced will be fully implemented during the second quarter.

But the market and economic conditions we are facing require that we further reduce costs within the company, ... We are realigning our resources as necessary to improve our financial results, while continuing our commitment to serve our customers.

Not only are our markets getting better and our internal cost-cutting programs succeeding, we are also seeing the benefits of our merger with Union Camp reflected in our earnings. Going forward, we will continue to manage production in line with our customer orders and not build inventory.

Market conditions are more favorable than we've seen in some time. Our efficiency and cost-reduction efforts have racked up record savings during the last two years and are on pace to do so again in 1999.