FAS is looking for new violators

The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) yesterday announced the initiation of cases against several companies at once: UMMC-Holding (the management company of the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company) on grounds of abuse of a dominant position in the copper cathode market, Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant (ChZP) on grounds of abuse dominant position in the zinc market in 2008-2010, as well as against the Russian Alcoa plant - Alcoa Metallurg Rus (former Belokalitvensky Metallurgical Production Association, BKMPO) - on suspicion of setting monopoly high prices for aluminum products.

UMMC controls the production of about 40% of Russian cathode copper, 35% of zinc and about 30% of lead, a quarter of the domestic market for rolled non-ferrous metals, as well as more than half of the European market of copper powders. CZP is Russia's largest zinc producer, accounting for about 64% of Russian production of this metal. Alcoa Metallurg Rus also produces products for the defense industry.

For the first time, the head of the FAS, Igor Artemyev, announced cases against metal companies that monopolistically inflate prices for their products at a meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on May 17. At it, in particular, plans were discussed by metallurgists, including the largest enterprises in the industry - MMK, Severstal and NLMK, to increase prices for rolled products for automakers by 25-30%. One of the reasons given was the rise in world prices for iron ore raw materials. “It is clear that costs may rise, but this is not at all a reason for sharp jumps in pricing,” Vladimir Putin said then. First, Evrazholding was blacklisted by the antimonopoly agency. Later, similar investigations were announced against Severstal and the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works. At the end of last week, it became known that the companies had found a compromise with car factories: AvtoVAZ agreed to increase prices for Severstal and MMK products by approximately 22%.

Irina TSYRULEVA