The Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has announced that Nizhny Tagil Iron and Steel Works (NTMK), a subsidiary of the Russian steelmaker and iron ore producer Evraz Group (Evraz), has violated Article 10 of the Federal Law ‘On protection of competition' by abusing market dominance in the domestic markets for Z-type profiles of 09G2С and 12G2FD grades.
"The company fixed and maintained monopolistically high prices and fixed different prices for the same goods without economic, technological or any other justification...Under Article 14.31 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Violations, NTMK can be fined for abusing market dominance," FAS said in its statement.
Accordingly, FAS analyzed the January 2009-June 2010 state of competition in the market of hot rolled Z-type profile for the center sill of Н-310 cars, and found that NTMK, the only producer of Z-type profiles of 09G2С and 12G2FD grades in the Russian Federation, had fixed different prices of hot rolled carriage profiles for the center sill (steel grades 09G2С and 12G2FD) for customers from Russia.
"The price difference in the period in question was between 10 and 66 percent. The profit margin for the Z-type profiles 09G2С and 12G2FD was from 12 to 200 percent," reads FAS's statement.