MECHEL CONTINUES IMPLEMENTING ITS SOCIAL PROGRAMS

Moscow, Russia – July 22, 2009 – Mechel OAO (NYSE: MTL), one of the leading
Russian mining and metals companies, announces that it continues implementing
its social programs at all of its subsidiaries. The programs are aimed at
providing support to Mechel’s employees’ families, to the youth and elderly
generation.
In spite of the world financial and economic crisis, all of Mechel’s main social
programs continue to be in effect. Employees of all of the group’s subsidiaries
are provided with medical services under the programs of supplemental medical
insurance. This summer, as well as in the previous years, about 6 thousand
children will have vacations in summer camps including 600 children going to a
camp located at the Black Sea cost in August. For the first time in Mechel’s
history, the company rents the whole camp to provide the children whose parents
work at the group’s various plants with opportunity to communicate and tell each
other about the cities they live in and their parents’ work.
The employees are still provided with subsidized vouchers to physical
rehabilitation and recreation centers. Mechel pays for the employees’ education,
including higher education. Mechel’s main material aid programs continue to be
effective with the focus having been made on assisting to families, women, and
children. Mechel subsidizes meal at the plants’ canteens. At many of Mechel’s
plants free transportation to the places of work is still provided. The group’s
attention is also focused on the questions of support to pensioners and veterans
who previously worked at Mechel’s subsidiaries.
Mechel is engaged in constructive dialogue with the trade unions at its
subsidiaries. The trade union leaders understand the measures, which help to
cope with the situation arisen. Management of the most of Mechel’s plants has
had meetings with the trade unions and supplements to the effective collective
bargain agreements have been made.
Mechel OAO Senior Vice President Vladimir Polin commented: “If we compare the
current scope of our social programs with that in the industry in general,
Mechel is the leader in maintaining them. Many other companies abandoned their
expenses for children’s recreation, medical insurance, and mass subsidies for
meals.
In spite of the seriousness of the situation, Mechel’s management considers
retaining labor staff to be one of its main tasks. In this regard, Mechel’s
subsidiaries didn’t make any “crises-related” staff reduction. Furthermore, many
anticrisis measures being implemented by us are directly targeted at retaining
the employees, paying out the wages, and even creating new jobs wherever this is
possible. Currently, full-time working day and, respectively, pre-crisis level
of salaries are reinstated at almost all Mechel's subsidiaries.”
Mechel OAO Senior Vice President Vladimir Polin continued: “As a matter of fact,
everything is quite simple here. There are two strategies: one may drift with
the stream and reduce its production, respectively reducing excessive personnel,
or try to rebuild its output, in which case no question of massive staff
reduction arises. We have definitely chosen the second option for ourselves.
Qualified employees are our valuable capital. And we will do our best not only
to keep it but also to provide deserving working and living conditions for our
employees and their families.”
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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.