Moscow, Russia – July 8, 2008 – Mechel OAO, one of the leading Russian mining and metals companies, today announced the launch of its offering of preferred shares and Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs).

The preferred shares will be listed on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX) and the Russian Trading System (RTS) under symbol MTLRP, and the GDRs are expected to be listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse) on its Regulated Market (Regulierter Markt). Each GDR will represent an interest in one preferred share.

The offering is expected to consist of up to 55,000,000 preferred shares. According to the Company's charter, the dividend per each outstanding preferred share is equal to 20% of the consolidated net income of Mechel determined pursuant to U.S. GAAP divided by 138,756,915, a number fixed in the Company's charter and which is the current number of authorized preferred shares.

Morgan Stanley and Renaissance Capital have been appointed as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners for the offering and KIT Finance has been appointed as co-underwriter and co-lead manager.