MECHEL ANNOUNCES INCREASE IN THE LEVEL OF ITS MINING SUBSIDIARIES’ CAPACITY
UTILIZATION

Moscow, Russia – July 21, 2009 – Mechel OAO (NYSE: MTL), one of the leading
Russian mining and metals companies, announces that the level of utilization of
its mining subsidiaries’ production capacities has increased in July 2009.
Utilization of production capacities of Mechel’s coal mining assets has reached
63% in July 2009 as compared to the respective average indicator in
January-August 2008. Utilization of Mechel’s Korshunov Mining Plant OAO, iron
ore concentrate producing subsidiary, has surpassed 108% level. Production
capacity utilization of Mechel’s Southern Kuzbass and Yakutugol coal mining
subsidiaries has increased by 62% and 57%, respectively, in July 2009 as
compared to May 2009.
“The witnessed recovery of production in Russia’s steel industry contributes to
the increase in the domestic consumption of raw materials. Besides, we have
managed to conclude a number of major export long-term contracts with Chinese,
Japanese, and South Korean companies in the first half of 2009, which enabled us
to significantly increase utilization of our coking coal production capacities
already in the second quarter 2009 and start their recovery to the pre-crisis
level. Thanks to the new coal and iron ore concentrate domestic and export sales
contracts, all Mechel’s mining subsidiaries are currently secured with orders.
That allowed us to increase overburden operations volume at the open pit mines
of Mechel’s coal mining assets, which was decreased in the 4th quarter of 2008
in order to reduce our production costs. According to our plans, that will
enable us to ramp up our coal mining subsidiaries’ output to 70%-75% of the
pre-crisis level already in September 2009,” Mechel OAO Senior Vice President
Vladimir Polin commented.
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Mechel OAO
Ilya Zhitomirsky
Phone: + 7 495 221 88 88
ilya.zhitomirsky@mechel.com
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Mechel is one of the leading Russian companies. Its business includes four
segments: mining, steel, ferroalloy and power. Mechel unites producers of coal,
iron ore concentrate, steel, rolled products, ferroalloys, hardware, heat and
electric power. Mechel products are marketed domestically and internationally.
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Some of the information in this press release may contain projections or other
forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial
performance of Mechel, as defined in the safe harbor provisions of the U.S.
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We wish to caution you that
these statements are only predictions and that actual events or results may
differ materially. We do not intend to update these statements. We refer you to
the documents Mechel files from time to time with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission, including our Form 20-F. These documents contain and
identify important factors, including those contained in the section captioned
“Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” in our
Form 20-F, that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those
contained in our projections or forward-looking statements, including, among
others, the achievement of anticipated levels of profitability, growth, cost and
synergy of our recent acquisitions, the impact of competitive pricing, the
ability to obtain necessary regulatory approvals and licenses, the impact of
developments in the Russian economic, political and legal environment,
volatility in stock markets or in the price of our shares or ADRs, financial
risk management and the impact of general business and global economic
conditions.