Severstal and FAS agreed to reduce the fine in the “metallurgists’ case” by 10 times

The company complied with some of the FAS instructions, the service agreed to cancel some of the instructions

Moscow. April 24. INTERFAX.RU – Severstal, as part of a settlement agreement with the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the “metallurgists’ case,” may pay a fine of about 900 million rubles, Vedomosti writes and Interfax sources confirm.

In January, the Moscow Arbitration Court recognized as legal the decision, order and fine of the FAS in the amount of 8.7 billion rubles against Severstal in the “metallurgists’ case”; the company filed an appeal. On April 23, the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal postponed the consideration of the company’s petition to approve the settlement agreement to May 27. In addition to Rosneft, IC Zvezda and Gazprom, NLMK and MMK are also involved as third parties in the case challenging the decision of the FAS.

As a source familiar with the terms of the settlement agreement signed by the parties told Interfax, when adjusting the amount of the fine within the framework of the agreement between the company and the department, the calculation was based on a lower percentage of revenue from the sale of hot-rolled steel in 2021.

Severstal also partially fulfilled the instructions previously issued by the service – in particular, it developed and presented to the FAS a trade policy on the hot-rolled flat steel market, the newspaper writes. This document sets out the principles of pricing in the domestic market for this type of product and the basis of interaction with customers – concluding contracts, considering applications, terms of delivery, etc.

According to Vedomosti’s interlocutor, the FAS agreed to cancel some of the orders issued following the consideration of the “metallurgists’ case.”

In February 2022, the FAS found the company to have violated antimonopoly laws. The department found that Severstal, along with the Novolipetsk Iron and Steel Works (NLMK) and the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK), set and maintained a monopolistic high price for hot-rolled flat steel in the domestic market. The increase in prices for hot-rolled steel occurred at a faster pace than the increase in production costs. In addition, it was found that sales in the domestic market did not increase, while profits grew three times compared to 2019-2020.

MMK (fine 8 billion rubles) and NLMK (6.4 billion rubles) are also challenging the FAS decisions in court.