are recorded as part of Cost of sales.

Pension and Postretirement Benefit Plans

We provide defined benefit pension plans for the majority of our employees worldwide. In the U.S., we have both qualified and supplemental (non-qualified) defined benefit plans, as well as other postretirement benefit plans, consisting primarily of healthcare and life insurance for retirees (see Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements—Note 13. Pension and Postretirement Benefit Plans and Defined Contribution Plans).

The accounting for benefit plans is highly dependent on actuarial estimates, assumptions and calculations, which result from a complex series of judgments about future events and uncertainties (see the “Accounting Policies––Estimates and Assumptions” section of this Financial Review). The assumptions and actuarial estimates required to estimate the employee benefit obligations for the defined benefit and postretirement plans may include the discount rate; expected salary increases; certain employee-related factors, such as turnover, retirement age and mortality (life expectancy); expected return on assets; and healthcare cost trend rates. Our assumptions reflect our historical experiences and our best judgment regarding future expectations that have been deemed reasonable by management. The judgments made in determining the costs of our benefit plans can materially impact our results of operations.

The following table shows the expected versus actual rate of return on plan assets and the discount rate used to determine the benefit obligations for the U.S. qualified pension plans:

  As a result of the global financial market downturn during 2008, the fair value of the assets held in our pension plans decreased by approximately 21% in 2008 and we estimate those losses will be amortized over a 10-year period. We maintained our expected long-term return on plan assets of 8.5% in 2010 for our U.S. pension plans, which impacts net periodic benefit cost. In early 2009, in order to reduce the volatility of our plan funded status and the probability of future contribution requirements, we shifted from an explicit target asset allocation to asset allocation ranges. However, we did not significantly change the asset allocation during 2009 and the allocation was largely consistent with that of 2008. No further changes to the strategic asset allocation were made in 2010 and, therefore, we maintained the 8.5% expected long-term rate of return on assets in 2010.

The assumption for the expected return on assets for our U.S. and international plans reflects our actual historical return experience and our long-term assessment of forward-looking return expectations by asset classes, which is used to develop a weighted- average expected return based on the implementation of our targeted asset allocation in our respective plans. The expected return for our U.S. plans and the majority of our international plans is applied to the fair market value of plan assets at each year end.

Holding all other assumptions constant, the effect of a 0.5 percentage-point decline in the return-on-assets assumption would increase our 2011 U.S. qualified pension plans’ pre-tax