Moscow, Russia –January 19, 2004 – Mechel (NYSE: MTL) announces new appointments in its management.

Jan Castro, who previously held the position of Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs and General Counsel was appointed Senior Vice President for Investments and Corporate Affairs, where he will focus on mergers and acquisitions, continuing optimization of Mechel’s corporate structure, and public and investor relations.

Irina Ipeeva, Director of Department of Corporate Governance and Property has been named to the position of General Counsel-Corporate Affairs, and Evgeny Mihel, Director of the Department of Litigation and Regulatory affairs has been named to the position of General Counsel-Litigation and Regulatory Affairs.

“Having led Mechel’s successful listing on the New York Stock Exchange and having played a key role in our sale of our MMK stake last year, we are now looking forward to Jan focusing more time on our mergers and acquisitions, as well as exploring opportunities for international cooperation. We are also very pleased to name Irina Ipeeva and Evgeny Mihel, very experienced employees who have worked with us for a number of years and who have contributed a great deal to Mechel’s NYSE IPO project, to their respective positions”, Vladimir Iorich, Mechel’s CEO said.

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Mechel Steel Group OAO
Irina Ostryakova
Director of Communications
Phone: 7-095-258-18-28
Fax: 7-095-258-18-38
irina.ostryakova@mechel.com

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Mechel Steel Group is a Russian metals and mining company, uniting producers of steel, rolled products, hardware, coal, iron ore concentrate, and nickel. Mechel Steel Group 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 Steel Group, 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 Steel Group files from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Form F-1. 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 F-1, 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.