Mechel Announces Commissioning of Shaft Furnace No. 8 At Its Southern Urals Nickel Plant Subsidiary

Mechel OAO (Moscow, Russia) (NYSE:MTL), announces commissioning of the Shaft Furnace No. 8 after repair at its Southern Urals Nickel Plant subsidiary.

Shaft Furnace No. 8 was restarted at Mechel's Southern Urals
Nickel Plant subsidiary on May 26, 2009. Thus, six shaft furnaces
currently operate at the plant. The restart of the Furnace No. 8
resulted in a 15 percent increase in utilization of the plant's capacity.
Considering total output of the six shaft furnaces, Southern Urals
Nickel Plant reached the level of 80 percent of average monthly pre-crises output.

In December 2008, the plant decreased its output due to a lower demand for its products. Therefore, all its furnaces were put into stand-by mode except two, which continued producing alloy. The time passed was used for maintenance works, which were conducted, substantially, by the plant's own personnel. Specifically, the gas ducts of Shaft Furnaces No. 1-2 and No. 3-4 were repaired, which enabled significant reduction of dust and gas emission rate.

As the result of the maintenance work completion and increase in demand for the plant's products, four shaft furnaces have been successively restarted from March 2009.

Taking into account all operating furnaces' total output during the
first four months of 2009 year-on-year, the plant's productivity
reached a 20 percent increase in tons per square metre per 24 hours.

From April 2009, the personnel of Southern Urals Nickel Plant resumed working based on a full time schedule. From December 2008 to April 2009, as an anti-crises measure the plant had shortened working days and working weeks.

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.

www.mechel.com