E-3
Exhibit 12
Computation of Ratio of Earnings to Fixed Charges
| ( in thousands ) |
Years ended December 31, | ||||||||
| 2004 |
2003 |
2002 | |||||||
| Earnings as Defined: |
|||||||||
| Earnings from operations before income taxes after eliminating undistributed earnings of 20% - to 50%-owned affiliates |
$ | 551,531 | $ | 432,086 | $ | 316,889 | |||
| Fixed charges excluding capitalized interest and preferred stock dividends of majority-owned subsidiary companies |
39,009 | 38,226 | 34,618 | ||||||
| Earnings as defined |
$ | 590,540 | $ | 470,312 | $ | 351,507 | |||
| Fixed Charges as Defined: |
|||||||||
| Interest expense, including amortization of debt issue costs |
$ | 30,878 | $ | 31,593 | $ | 28,301 | |||
| Interest capitalized |
600 | 491 | 625 | ||||||
| Portion of rental expense representative of the interest factor |
8,131 | 6,633 | 6,317 | ||||||
| Preferred stock dividends of majority-owned subsidiary companies |
80 | 80 | 80 | ||||||
| Fixed charges as defined |
$ | 39,689 | $ | 38,797 | $ | 35,323 | |||
| Ratio of Earnings to Fixed Charges |
14.88 | 12.12 | 9.95 | ||||||