33 Liquidity and Capital Resour ces The Company maintains a strong cash position as evidenced by the Company's ability to generate substantial cash from operations and access to capital markets at competitive rates. Cash flows from operations as well as borrowings under our Revolving Credit Facility provide the primary source for financing operating expenses and other short term liquidity needs. As necessary the Company may supplement additional debt to fund other working capital needs, debt and interest payments, as well as discretionary investment in internal product development, acquisitions, Series  A preferred stock dividends, repurchase of common stock and taxes. The overall cash position of the Company reflects the business results and a global cash management strategy that incorporates liquidity management, economic factors, and tax considerations. The Company's short term borrowings vary by period based on the Company's working capital requirements which is dependent on incremental demand for products and changes in the price of copper , aluminum, and other raw material cost inputs. At December 31, 2012 , current assets exceeded current liabilities by $ 1,257.0 million . Based upon historical experience, the cash on its balance sheet and the expected availability of funds under its current credit facilities, the Company believes its sources of liquidity will be suf ficient to enable it to meet funding requirements for working capital, capital expenditures, debt repayment, salaries and related benefits, interest, Series  A preferred stock dividends and taxes for the next twelve months and foreseeable future. The Company maintains approximately $ 977.5 million  of excess availability under its various credit facilities around the world. The Company's North American operations generally borrows and repays under our Revolving Credit Facility multiple times per week for working capital needs; borrowing on a short term basis is the most ef fective method to reduce interest costs based on the terms of the agreement. The Company's European operations participate in accounts payable confirming arrangements with several European financial institutions to address working capital requirements in the business. The Company negotiates payment terms with suppliers of generally 180 days in Europe and submit invoices to the financial institutions with instructions for the financial institutions to transfer funds from European operations' accounts on the due date (on day 180) for the trade payables due. At December 31, 2012 , the arrangements had a maximum availability limit of the equivalent of approximately $ 446.9 million , of which approximately $ 317.6 million was drawn. The Company's ROW operations utilize short term credit facilities for working capital purposes. General Cable Corporation is a holding company with no operations of its own. All of the Company’ s operations are conducted, and net sales are generated, by its subsidiaries and investments. Accordingly , the Company’ s cash flow comes from the cash flows of its global operations. The Company’ s ability to use cash flow from its international operations, if necessary , has historically been adversely af fected by limitations on the Company’ s ability to repatriate such earnings tax ef ficiently . As of December 31, 2012 , approximately 76% of cash and cash equivalents were held outside of the U.S. by our foreign subsidiaries compared with 98% as of December 31, 201 1 . If these funds are needed for the Company's operations in the U.S., the Company would be required to accrue and pay U.S. taxes to repatriate these funds. However , the Company's intent is to permanently reinvest these funds outside of the U.S. and current plans do not demonstrate a need to repatriate them to fund U.S. operations. In addition, our Revolving Credit Facility provides the Company flexibility in financing operating expenses and any other short term liquidity needs of our U.S. operations. In particular , V enezuela has foreign exchange and price controls which have historically limited the Company’ s ability to convert bolivars to U.S. dollar and transfer funds out of V enezuela. In V enezuela, government restrictions on the transfer of cash out of the country have limited the Company’ s ability to repatriate cash. Approximately 22% and 21% of the consolidated cash balance as of December 31, 2012 and December 31, 201 1 , respectively , was held in V enezuela. The proportion of operating cash flows attributable to V enezuela in 2012 as compared to total Company operating cash flows is 17% and 43% for the years ended December 31, 2012 and 201 1 , respectively . Summary of Cash Flows Operating cash inflow of $ 288.6 million in 2012 reflects a net working capital source of $ 1 15.3 million driven principally by decreases in inventories and receivables of $ 73.4 million and $ 33.3 million , respectively . The decrease in inventory is primarily attributable to the impact of lower average metal prices during 2012 as compared to 201 1 . For the year ended December 31, 2012, copper prices averaged $3.62 per pound (a decrease of $0.39 per pound compared to the same period in 201 1) and aluminum prices averaged $1.02 per pound (a decrease of $0.14 per pound as compared to the same period in 201 1). Inventory turns remained consistent at 4.3 in 2012 and 4.4 in 201 1. The decrease in accounts receivable is primarily attributable to the Company's continued focus on improvement by ef ficiently managing working capital. Days sales outstanding remained consistent year over year at approximately 70 days. In addition to the net working capital source of cash in the twelve fiscal months of 2012 was $ 173.3 million of overall net cash inflows related to net income adjusted for depreciation and amortization, amortization on restricted stock awards, foreign currency loss, loss on extinguishment of debt, deferred income tax income, excess tax benefits from stock based compensation, convertible debt instrument non cash interest char ges, and the gain on the disposal of property . T able of Contents