OREANDA-NEWS. On February 14, 2008 Mechel OAO (NYSE: MTL), one of the leading Russian mining and metals companies, announced that specialists from the independent auditor group, LUZ, a scientific railway research institute located in Prague, completed its quality system audit of the Urals Stampings Plant OAO subsidiary for manufacturing railway axles to the European market, reported the press-centre of Mechel.

The experts from LUZ carried out a full-scale audit of the plant, and they unanimously confirmed that the equipment for manufacturing railway axles is in compliance with its high standards. Additionally, the auditors confirmed all of the documentation with the TSI-H1 standard, that the production technological processes, such as forging, cooling and heating and thermal processing, as well as control and testing, storage, packing and shipping met their requirements and is now in compliance with the EN 13261 standard (The members of the EN standard are made up of countries from the European Union).

Since 1995, the Urals Stampings Plant OAO has produced railway axles, and these products have received several international certificates demonstrating their high quality. Furthermore, the plant's management system is in compliance with the ISO 9001:2000 international standard, which is a universal indicator of a manufacture's market position.

The production of railway locomotives axles, which are partially exported to the North American market, has been certified by the Association of American Railroads and is in compliance with the M 101 standard.

The manufacturing of rolling stock rough axles has been approved by the Register of Certification on the Federal Railway Transport to meet the requirements of GOST 30272 and GOST 30552.

By meeting the requirements of strict European product quality control standards, Mechel’s Urals Stampings Plant OAO has now entered into the European market. Immediately after signing the approval from the auditors, the plant received an inquiry from a Slovakian business.