Pension And Other Postretirement Benefit Plans

3 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2014

Defined Benefit Pension Plans and Defined Benefit Postretirement Plans Disclosure [Abstract]

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Disclosure [Text Block]

PENSION AND OTHER POSTRETIREMENT BENEFIT PLANS

The Company sponsors several defined benefit pension plans covering U.S. salaried employees and certain foreign and other employee groups. These plans provide retirement benefits based primarily on employee compensation and years of service. The Company also sponsors defined benefit plans that provide postretirement health and life insurance benefits for eligible U.S. employees attaining specific age and service levels.

The components of the Company’s net periodic benefit cost were as follows:

	Pension Benefits						Other Postretirement Benefits
	Three Months Ended June 30,						Three Months Ended June 30,
(in thousands of dollars)	2014			2013			2014			2013
Service cost	$	1,334		$	1,195		$	114		$	138
Interest cost	2,669			2,857			484			532
Expected return on plan assets	(3,692		)	(3,542		)	(26		)	(30		)
Net amortization and deferral	780			2,447			(133		)	(17		)
Net periodic benefit cost	$	1,091		$	2,957		$	439		$	623

The net periodic benefit costs for pension benefits and other postretirement benefits for the three months ended June 30, 2014 are lower than for the comparable period of the prior fiscal year. The reduction partly reflects reduced amortization of actuarial losses due to an increase in the discount rate used to calculate the benefit liabilities for the Company's U.S. plans, together with favorable performance of the assets held by the ERISA-regulated U.S. pension plan. The amortization of a prior service credit attributable to certain amendments made to the Company's U.S. pension plans in the prior year also contributed to the decline in net periodic benefit cost.

During the three months ended June 30, 2014, the Company made contributions of approximately $2.9 million to its pension plans. Additional contributions of approximately $4.2 million are expected during the remaining nine months of fiscal year 2015, including $3.0 million to the Company's ERISA-regulated U.S. plan and $1.2 million to its non-ERISA-regulated and other plans.