The Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) may oblige local steelmakers found to have violated antimonopoly laws to sell specific volumes of products on the planned Russian metals exchange at a predetermined starting price, the Russian newspaper Kommersant has reported.
Accordingly, the Russian steel producers are likely sell on the exchange products such as rebars, angles, square billets, sheets, and later pipes and slabs. Overall, the exchange market may account for one percent of total domestic steel production.
The first exchange dedicated to metals is planned to be established in Russia's Urals region. The metal exchange planned by the FAS should bring transparency to price-forming in the steel market, as happened in the oil market in 2009. Due to consumers' complaints as regards overpricing, FAS is currently investigating several cases affecting Russian steel and mining companies, including Evraz, Raspadskaya and Severstal, with the results expected in February.
Meanwhile, market participants are skeptical that trading via the planned exchange will make prices in the market transparent, considering the limited number of consumers and the diversity of the product range. As an alternative to the exchange, they propose to create an information space, i.e., a statistical center for monitoring the prices of steel products.