MECHEL WINS CBONDS AWARDS PRIZE FOR BEST PRIMARY PLACEMENT FOR DOMESTIC BONDS

Moscow, Russia — December 12, 2011 – Mechel OAO (NYSE: MTL), one of the leading
Russian mining and metals companies, announces winning the prestigious Cbonds
Awards contest in the Best Primary Placement for Domestic Bonds category.
Based upon the Cbonds news agency’s analysis,  Mechel won the top place in the
Best Primary Placement for Domestic Bonds nomination for the placement of the
17-19 series debentures with a maturity of 10 years and a put option in five
years.
Mechel placed the 17-19 series bonds with the nominal value of each series set
at 5 billion rubles in June 2011. VTB Capital ZAO, Sberbank OAO and Coalmetbank
OAO acted as managers of the placement.
The award ceremony was held on December 9 in Saint-Petersburg as part of the IX
Russian Bond Congress organized by the Cbonds news agency.
“In 2011, Mechel OAO publicly placed a significant volume of ruble bonds on the
Russian market.  The placement allowed us to optimize our credit portfolio by
extending the terms of our financial obligations and cutting financing costs, as
well as to fund our investment projects. This is proof not only of the fact that
our company began to make more active use of the public loan market’s
instruments, but also of the high level of trust that investors have for the
company’s financial policy and its quality as an issuer. We are particularly
glad that investors noted this not only at the time of the bonds’ placement, but
also when they voted for this year’s best deals,” Mechel’s Chief Financial
Officer Stanislav Ploschenko said.
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Mechel OAO
Ekaterina Videman
Tel: + 7 495 221 88 88
ekaterina.videman@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, nickel, ferrochrome, ferrosilicon, steel, rolled products,
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.