The Russian Federation's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has announced that, as a result of its investigation conducted into the situation in the Russian domestic coking coal market, it has decided to initiate legal proceedings against several subsidiaries of Russian mining and steel producer Mechel, namely TD Mechel, Uzhniy Kuzbass and Yakutugol, on the basis of violation of article one of the Russian federal law dealing with protection of competition.
According to the FAS's release on the issue, Uzhniy Kuzbass and TD Mechel have cut coking coal supplies to Russian steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) without any economic or technical reasons, while TD Mechel and Yakutugol have refused to conclude a supply agreement with the same steelmaker without providing any valid economic or technical reasons. Therefore, according to FAS, the companies in question have violated Russian monopoly law by abusing their monopoly position in the market.
Moreover, according to the FAS, TD Mechel set and continued to hold prices for coking coal for the domestic market at very high levels, which is also in conflict with Russian monopoly law.