On December 1 this year, the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) announced that it has initiated legal proceedings against another subsidiary of Russian steelmaker and iron ore producer Evraz Group, namely, Kachkanarsky Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise Vanady (KGOK), upon signs of abusing its dominance in the Russian domestic market of vanadium-containing iron ore raw materials (pellets and agglomerate).
"FAS Russia suspects violations of the law on competition as KGOK fixed different prices for Russian customers without any economic, technological or other justification, fixing and maintaining monopolistically high prices for vanadium-containing iron ore raw materials, as well as creating discriminatory conditions for Russian customers in comparison with foreign ones," reads the FAS statement.
Accordingly, from 2009 to the first half of 2010, with the production costs of vanadium-containing iron ore raw materials varying within 10-15 percent, the price for these products as charged by KGOK increased by 244 percent. The gap between the company's ex-works prices for vanadium-containing iron ore raw materials for different customers reached 100-110 percent.