Headquartered in Moscow, it sells its products in Russia and overseas, and is formally known as Public Joint Stock Company Mechel.

Under the leadership of Vladimir Iorikh (Russian: Владимир Филиппович Йорих), Southern Kuzbass Coal Company acquired control over Chelyabinsk Steel Plant in the summer of 2002 and subsequently announced a merger of Southern Kuzbass and Mechel into Mechel Steel Group.

[4] Mechel acquired a controlling stake in Southern Kuzbass GRES OAO and Kuzbassenergosbyt power sales company in 2007.

Mechel signed a deal to sell the Tikhvin Ferroalloy Plant and the Voskhod Refinery to Turkey's Yildirim Group in 2013.

However, the price was revised downward in early 2009 because of the Great Recession: Mechel was to pay for the asset US$425 million and issue 15% of the post-acquisition equity in preferred stock to the current shareholders of Bluestone Coal.

[14] Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sharply criticized Mechel management at a government meeting in Nizhniy Novgorod on July 24, 2008, which focused on ongoing troubles in the steel industry.

Putin accused Mechel for exporting raw materials for steelmakers at prices about half the domestic level (which could be a sign of tax avoidance).

[15][16] After Putin's accusations, Mechel's stock dropped 37.6% on the New York Stock Exchange, while the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service launched investigation into Mechel's practice of raising domestic coking coal prices far above the export price levels.

On the following day, July 25, the company issued a contrite statement promising full cooperation with federal authorities,[17] while share values rebounded by nearly 15 percent.

[22] In mid-August 2008, the Federal Antimonopoly Service found Mechel guilty of violating Article 10 of the Competition Law by causing the domestic price of coking to rise, imposing a relatively small fine for this violation, equivalent to 5% of the group's annual sales, or RUB 790 million.

Vladimir Putin expressed regret over his own comments at a steel industry meeting in Chelyabinsk on July 26, 2010: How can Mechel organize normal, decent, fair business operation?

[27][28] The Federal Service for Financial Markets confirmed that Mechel had in fact violated minority shareholders' rights by withholding essential information from them.

[30] In 2012, at the time when the Russian environmental watchdog Rosprirodnadzor filed claims against Mechel subsidiaries, a minority shareholder in Tomusinsky Open Pit Mine OAO (which is part of Southern Kuzbass) the Swiss Bank Julius Baer and Co. Ltd. accused Tomusinsky of issuing stock at a lower price in violation of the law and shareholders' rights.

[36][37][38] Industry experts are unanimous that the company's trouble arise from inefficient acquisitions and highly risky financing policy, which has practically brought Mechel to the brink of bankruptcy.

[47][48][49] Mechel intends to dispose some of its non-core assets in 2014, as well as a minority stake in Elga coal mine, one of Russia's largest.