Moscow, Russia – July 25, 2006 – Mechel OAO (NYSE: MTL), a leading Russian integrated mining and steel group, reported today its operational results for the first half of 2006.

Product	1H 2006, thousand tonnes	1H 2006 as compared to 1H 2005, %
Coal	8,094	+ 8
Coking Coal	4,497	+ 9
Steam Coal	3,597	+ 6
Iron Ore Concentrate	2,391	+ 8
Nickel	6.97	+ 26
Hardware	288	+7
Forgings	33	- 23
Stampings	52	+ 2
Rolled Products	2,276	- 6
Flat Products	192	+ 26
Long Products	1,215	+ 2
Semi-Finished Products	869	- 20
Steel	2,865	- 7
Pig Iron	1,728	- 6
Coke	1,078	- 21

Alexey Ivanushkin, Mechel’s Chief Operating Officer, commented: “Although we witnessed decline in prices in the first quarter of this year, the second quarter has demonstrated growing stability and recovery in the markets, positively affecting efficiency in all of our segments. We believe this trend will persist as we move through 2006 and we will continue to increase output in our coal divsion, which is in line with our plans to produce 25 million tonnes of coal in 2010. Due to ongoing modernization of the Korshunov Mining Plant, we witnessed an increase in iron ore concentrate output, increasing our raw materials independence. Our nickel-producing facility demonstrated excellent technological results both increasing ferronickel production output and simultaneously decreasing coke usage. In our steel segment, we managed to maintain and even increase production of higher value-added products while cutting down raw materials usage.”