Pretty sure not. However, they are probably pretty tight for at least two reasons. First, MSC has been gobbling up the competition for industrial distribution - including J&L which was formerly a subsidiary of Kennametal. Second, MSC is most likely Kennametal's largest distributor. One might also imagine that there was some sort of sweetheart/preferential positioning of Kennametal products as part of the J&L talks??
Ownership of Kennametal now includes lots of "it's all about the shareholders (even if it means screwing the customers)" types, including 10% or so ownership by BlackRock and maybe 50% of the company by similar equity funds. There's likely pressure on the board to increase margins (aka increase prices), even if not in either the customers' or the company's long range interest. Result in 10 years? Maybe some Chinese company dominates the market?
Kennametal used to be - maybe still is - a pretty cool company. They were part of a 20 or so company benchmark study I was paid to do a bit over 20 years ago. One thing I recall is that the company liked to keep it's manufacturing locations under about 300-350 people per site. They thought it helped people work together, reduce bureaucracy. No idea what the company is like these days.
