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Two KEMET Facilities in Mexico are Recipients of Prestigious Shingo Prize

GREENVILLE, S.C., Feb. 7 PRNewswire-FirstCall — KEMET Corporation (NYSE: KEM) today announced that the company's manufacturing facilities in Matamoros and Ciudad Victoria, Mexico, have both been named recipients of The Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing Business. The Shingo Prize, established in 1988, recognizes business excellence in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. It identifies its recipient companies as leaders in Lean manufacturing and business processes who have in common world-class excellence in manufacturing. Only six award recipients were selected for 2008, and KEMET represents two of those six.

"We are very pleased and honored to have not one but two of our manufacturing facilities receiving this coveted award," said KEMET Chief Executive Officer Per Loof. "The Shingo Prize has been dubbed 'the Nobel Prize of manufacturing.' As with the Nobel Prize, many try, but only a few are chosen. We are extremely proud to be among the select few."

"KEMET has been learning and applying Lean manufacturing techniques for a number of years now," said Conrado Hinojosa, Senior Vice President of KEMET's Tantalum Business Group, of which both the Matamoros and Victoria plants are a part. "It is especially gratifying to have our efforts and achievements recognized in such a visible way as we continue to move forward on our Lean journey."

The Shingo Prize is named for Japanese industrial engineer Dr. Shigeo Shingo, who distinguished himself as one of the world's leading experts in improving manufacturing processes. The program is administered by the College of Business, Utah State University.

The Shingo Prize trophies will be awarded at The 20th Annual Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence Conference in Dallas, Texas, during a special awards ceremony on April 3, 2008.

KEMET Corporation applies world-class service and quality to deliver industry-leading, high-performance capacitance solutions to its customers around the world. KEMET offers the world's most complete line of surface-mount and through-hole capacitor technologies across tantalum, ceramic, aluminum (organic and electrolytic), film and paper dielectrics. KEMET's common stock is listed on The New York Stock Exchange under the symbol KEM. Additional information can be found at http://www.kemet.com .

Contact: Dean W. Dimke Director of Corporate and Marketing Communication deandimke@kemet.com 864-228-4448

SOURCE KEMET Corporation