text: **To the Board of Directors a nd Share holders of A pplied Indus tria l Tec hnol ogies , Inc.**
  **Clevela nd, Ohio**
  
  We have audited the internal control over financial reporting of Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. and subsidiaries (the “Company”) 
  as of June 30, 2012, based on criteria established in Internal Control — Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring 
  Organizations of the Treadway Commission. The Company’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over 
  financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying 
  Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s 
  internal control over financial reporting based on our audit. 
  
  We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those 
  standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over 
  financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over 
  financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of 
  internal control based on the assessed risk, and performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. 
  We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion. 
  
  A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed by, or under the supervision of, the company’s principal 
  executive and principal financial officers, or persons performing similar functions, and effected by the company’s board of directors, 
  management, and other personnel to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation 
  of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control 
  over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, 
  accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that 
  transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting 
  principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management 
  and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized 
  acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements. 