Employee Benefit Plans

9 Months Ended

Apr. 30, 2012

Employee Benefit Plans [Abstract]

Employee Benefit Plans

Note K – Employee Benefit Plans

The Company and certain of its international subsidiaries have defined benefit pension plans for many of their hourly and salaried employees. There are two types of U.S. plans. The first type of U.S. plan is a traditional defined benefit pension plan primarily for production employees. The second is a plan for salaried workers that provides defined benefits pursuant to a cash balance feature whereby a participant accumulates a benefit comprised of a percentage of current salary that varies with years of service, interest credits, and transition credits. The international plans generally provide pension benefits based on years of service and compensation level.

Net periodic pension costs for the Company's pension plans include the following components (thousands of dollars):

	Three Months EndedApril 30,						Nine Months EndedApril 30,
	2012			2011			2012			2011
Net periodic cost:
Service cost	$	3,870		$	4,077		$	11,630		$	12,151
Interest cost		4,866			4,872			14,607			14,533
Expected return on assets		(7,057	)		(6,920	)		(21,115	)		(20,616	)
Transition amount amortization		54			58			165			167
Prior service cost amortization		127			119			382			347
Actuarial loss amortization		1,393			839			4,274			2,491
Net periodic benefit cost	$	3,253		$	3,045		$	9,943		$	9,073

The Company's general funding policy for its pension plans is to make at least the minimum contributions as required by applicable regulations. Additionally, the Company may elect to make additional contributions up to the maximum tax deductible contribution. For the nine months ended April 30, 2012, the Company made contributions of $7.4 million to its non-U.S. pension plans and $15.4 million to its U.S. pension plans. The Company does not currently plan to make any additional contributions to its U.S. pension plans in Fiscal 2012. The Company currently estimates that it will contribute an additional $5.8 million to its non-U.S. pension plans during the remainder of Fiscal 2012.