Oct. 27, 2006 — Duferco International Trading Holding Limited, along with Industrial Union of Donbass (ISD) and Esmark Inc. announced that they have reached an agreement in principle whereby Duferco/ISD would make available up to 1.4 million tonnes of slabs on an as-needed, annual basis to the Esmark family of companies beginning in the first quarter of 2007.

The supply agreement would extend six years with a provision for automatic annual renewal thereafter. The agreement would be available in the event the proposed combination of Esmark and Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corp. is consummated.

“We are very pleased to announce this arrangement with Duferco/ISD, two of the world’s most respected steelmakers and leading providers of steel slabs to the North American market,” said James P. Bouchard, Esmark’s Chairman and CEO. “This agreement further strengthens Esmark’s strong domestic and international partnerships. Duferco/ISD are committed to providing Esmark with a low-cost supply of slabs that we believe could be used to restructure the cost structure of Wheeling-Pitt in the event of a combination with Esmark.

Bouchard says the Duferco/ISD agreement would provide “a long-term slab agreement that we believe would allow us to expand Wheeling-Pitt’s current 1.7 million ton per year electric arc furnace (EAF) output to 2.0 million tons and increase Wheeling-Pitt’s total hot strip mill capacity to 3.4 million tons per year without running the high-cost blast furnace. In short, this agreement would provide the resources for a combined company comprised of Esmark and Wheeling-Pitt to provide its domestic and international customers with a low-cost steel supply chain.”

Headquartered in Chicago and founded by the Bouchard Group, Esmark is a steel services family of companies. The mission of Esmark is to establish the benchmark standards for strategic consolidation, operating efficiency and management excellence in the steel sector.

The Duferco Group, with revenues in excess of $7 billion, is engaged in the worldwide production, distribution and trade of all types of steel products, including raw materials involved in steel making processes. Duferco has steelmaking and processing plants in Europe, Eastern Europe, United States, South Africa and Central America. Through its strategic relationships with producers throughout the world, Duferco also sources and sells all kinds of steel products from every continent. In total Duferco handles over 15 million tonnes per year of steel products.

Industrial Union of Donbass (ISD) is an integrated producer of steel products, with the annual output of 9.2 million tonnes of liquid steel. One of the largest industrial holdings in Ukraine, ISD also owns production facilities in Hungary and Poland. Through its strategic partnership with Duferco, ISD enjoys access to a global distribution network, in addition to its own chain of retail service centers in key East European markets. Industrial joint ventures in the U.S. and Western Europe form an integral part of ISD’s global development strategy, and have provided an opportunity to rapidly expand the group’s market reach.