July 21, 2006 — Esmark Inc. announced its nominees for directors in preparation for the next Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corp. annual meeting. Esmark says it believes that its nominees will act in the best interests of all Wheeling-Pittsburgh shareholders, and intends to file a preliminary proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission soon.

"We believe Wheeling-Pitt shareholders deserve a change for the better," said James P. Bouchard, Esmark Chairman and CEO. "We have assembled an extremely talented and diverse slate of directors with decades of experience at the management and board levels in some of the world's leading corporations. These directors would dedicate themselves to transforming Wheeling-Pittsburg from a high-cost, under-capitalized company with a history of disappointing earnings into a well-capitalized, profitable steel company with a talented management team and industry leadership position.

"As we announced earlier this week, if elected we would ask our nominees to bring our proposal to combine Wheeling-Pitt and Esmark to a shareholder vote. We believe that such a merger would create a company that combines the best of steel mini-mill production and downstream distribution, providing superior value to Wheeling-Pitt's shareholders and benefiting its customers, employees, and local communities," said James P. Bouchard.

Esmark's proposed slate consists of the following nine nominees:

• James P. Bouchard — Mr. Bouchard (45) is the founder, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of Esmark Inc. and Chairman and CEO of the Bouchard Group, LLC. Prior to founding Esmark in 2003, Mr. Bouchard was Vice President-Commercial for U.S. Steel Kosice (Europe) from 2000 to 2002. During his 15-year career at U.S. Steel Group, Mr. Bouchard was Manager—Marketing, Manager—National Accounts and Strategic Market Development Manager. Mr. Bouchard served on the C.D.E. committee for Eurofer in Brussels, Belgium. He also served as Chairman of the Steel Shipping Container Institute (SSCI) supplier division of American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) in Washington, D.C.
• Craig T. Bouchard — Mr. Bouchard (52) is the co-founder, President and Chief Financial Officer of Esmark. He has 25 years of experience in domestic and international finance, specializing in mergers, acquisitions and corporate finance, as well as international trading, software and analytics. From 1998 to 2003, Mr. Bouchard was the President and CEO of NumeriX, a Wall Street software company. Prior to helping found NumeriX, Mr. Bouchard was a Senior Vice President at the First National Bank of Chicago (now J.P. Morgan Chase) from 1976 to 1995. During his 19-year career at the bank, Mr. Bouchard was the Global Head of Derivatives Trading, Head of Institutional Research, and Head of Asia Pacific.
• C. Frederick Fetterolf — Mr. Fetterolf (78) served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Aluminum Company of America, Inc. (Alcoa) from 1985 to 1991, and previously was President of this aluminum producer from 1983 to 1985. He has extensive experience as a director with high-profile, publicly-traded companies including Alcoa, Aleris International, Inc., Union Carbide Corp., Allegheny Technologies Inc., Mellon Bank Corp., Quaker State Corp., Praxair, Inc., and Dentsply International, Inc.
• George Munoz — From 1997 to 2001, Mr. Munoz (55) was President and CEO of the Overseas Private Investment Corp., where he supervised an $18 billion portfolio of loans, guarantees and political risk insurance on private sector investments in developing countries. From 1993 to 1997, he served as Assistant Secretary for Management and Chief Financial Officer of the U.S. Treasury Department. A prominent attorney, Mr. Munoz is currently a partner with the law firm of Tobin, Petkus & Munoz. He is also Principal and President of Munoz Investment Banking Group, LLC and serves as a director for a number of Fortune 500 companies including Marriott International Inc. and Altria Group Inc.
• James V. Koch, Ph.D. — From 1990 to 2001, Dr. Koch (63) served as President and Professor of Economics of Old Dominion University, where he currently serves as the President Emeritus and the Board of Visitors Professor of Economics. He previously served as President of the University of Montana, and has held senior positions at Ball State University. He currently serves on a variety of high-profile research, non-profit and academic boards. Dr. Koch has authored dozens of books and articles on economics, and has over 40 years of experience in industrial organization, pricing, and antitrust; microeconomic theory, and the economics of education e-commerce.
• James Todd — Mr. Todd (77) served as Chairman and CEO of the former Birmingham Steel and its predecessors from 1980 to 1996. He returned to that NYSE-listed minimill steel company from 1999 to 2002 to serve as Vice Chairman and Director. He is one of the most well-known and respected figures in the global steel industry. He is currently President and CEO of CanAm Corp., an investor in the coal, iron ore, and steel industries.
• Albert G. Adkins — Mr. Adkins (58) served as Vice President—Accounting, Controller, and Chief Accounting Officer for Marathon Oil Corp. from 2001 to 2006. Previously, Mr. Adkins also served as Controller and Assistant Controller for the United States Steel Corp., and Vice President of Accounting and Finance for Delhi Gas Pipeline Corp. A certified public accountant and certified management accountant, Mr. Adkins has over 36 years of experience in financial management, corporate accounting, general procurement, tax management and public accounting.
• Joseph Peduzzi — Mr. Peduzzi (41) began his career the securities industry with Susquehanna Investment Group in 1989. During his 18-year career, Mr. Peduzzi has built and managed trading firms with special emphasis on risk management and arbitrage, and will bring strong skills in risk management to the Esmark Board of Directors. He founded and currently serves as President and Managing Director for Tiberius Qualified Master Fund, Ltd. and Tiberius Fund, Ltd. He has also served as Managing Partner of TF Asset Management LLC since 2001 and Montrachet Capital Management LLC since 2005.
• Clark Burrus — From 1991 to 1998, Mr. Burris (77) was the Vice Chairman of First Chicago Capital Markets, Inc., and Co-Chairman of its public banking department. Previously, he served as Senior Vice President of the First National Bank of Chicago (now J.P. Morgan Chase) from 1979 to 1991. A published author on minority issues in public finance, Mr. Burris served as Comptroller of the City of Chicago from 1973 to 1979. He currently serves on the boards of a number of public and private organizations, including the Chicago Council on Urban Affairs, the Cook County Citizens Budget Review Committee, and the Economic Development Council, among others.

Esmark emphasized that it is proud of its working relationship at its existing facilities with the United Steel Workers of America (USWA), enjoys the support of USWA leadership for its merger proposal and that it does not oppose the re-election of the two incumbent directors from the USWA.

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.