MECHEL ANNOUNCES A BLOCK OF COKE OVEN BATTERIES NO. 2 COMMISSIONING AT ITS
MOSCOW COKE AND GAS PLANT OAO

Vidnoye, Russia – June 18, 2009 – Mechel OAO (NYSE: MTL), one of the leading
Russian mining and metals companies, announces the restart of a block of coke
oven batteries No. 2 at its Moscow Coke and Gas Plant OAO (Moskoks).
Mechel OAO is successfully restoring production volumes at its steel segment
subsidiaries’ plants.  Thus, the blast furnace #4 at Chelyabinsk Metallurgical
Plant OAO (CMP OAO) was commissioned in March 2009 after capital repair,
Southern Urals Nickel Plant operates its full capacity, and one more ore
heat-treating electric furnace is commissioned at Tikhvin Smelting Plant ZAO. In
June, 10 2009 coke oven #4 started operations after capital repair at CMP. Its
capacity is 440 thousand tonnes of coke per year.
In June, 18 2009 the official commissioning of the block of coke oven batteries
No. 2 was held at Moscow Coke and Gas Plant OAO. The event was attended by the
Minister of Industry and Science of Moscow Region Government Vladimir Kozyrev,
the Head of Leninsky Municipal District (Moscow Region) Vasily Golubev, Mechel
Management OOO CEO Andrey Deineko, Moskoks Managing Director Vladimir Tycskiy
and other honorable guests.
The personnel of the plant’s three main workshops resume working based on a full
time schedule as the capacity utilization was restored starting from June 15.
Block #2 consists of three batteries – #3, 4 and 4-bis. It includes 89 oven
chambers with 23.4 cubic meter capacity each. After today’s restart, the plant’s
average monthly capacity utilization level will become equal to the average
rates of the first eight months of 2008 (pre-crisis level). The block will
produce 50 thousand tonnes of coke monthly after reaching its production
capacity. Total annual capacity of the plant is 1.3 million tonnes of coke of 6%
humidity. The plant’s personnel is 1300 employees. After commissioning of the
block #2 the plant’s capacity utilization will reach 100%.
In the course of hot conservation period maintenance and capital repair works
were held.  The works included gas exhaust and intake equipment checkout, repair
of water pipeline for the coke extinguishing towers #1 and 2, inlet collector of
primary gas refrigerators of collecting workshop repair and some other works.
“Mechel OAO is the only Russian company commissioning coke oven batteries after
period of suspension and production volume drop. Currently many metallurgical
and chemical-recovery companies significantly decreased coke production as we
saw very low demand in the last few months. Production volumes recovery at
Mechel group’s plants became possible mainly due to our sales units successful
performance. Their efficient work allows us to increase deliveries to the third
parties on the internal Russian market as well as export deliveries. For
example, in June about 30% of Moskoks production will be shipped to foreign
countries.
Increase in coke production allows us to additionally utilize coking coal mining
capacity providing us with reliable consumption channel.
Steady work of mining plants is very important in the current economic situation
and we would like to emphasize that the company fulfills its obligations in
production and social programs as well,” 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.