Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) has announced that on August 31 it held a meeting for developing competition in the market of graphite electrodes during which participants, including manufacturers and consumers of graphite electrodes, suppliers of raw materials for their production and other interested parties discussed the factors affecting pricing for graphite electrodes and also considered reducing the antidumping (AD) duties for electrodes imported from abroad.
During the meeting, Viktor Nechuyatov, general director of Russian electrode producer ENERGOPROM Group, stated that, in order to meet the expectations of their graphite electrode consumers in the changing conditions in the global market, FAS is devising investment plans to modernize and expand production capacities, and is implementing a program for improving sales policy and interaction with buyers under the framework of observing the law on competition and fair satisfaction of the demand for graphite electrodes.
Based on outcome of the meeting, a decision was made to continue discussing the issue and hold another meeting in the next month. Other authorities, particularly, Russia’s Ministry of Industry and Trade, will be engaged in the discussion.