OREANDA-NEWS. March 17, 2010. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Ryabkov, held a round of consultations in Buenos Aires with First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship of the Argentine Republic Victorio Taccetti on March 16.

Minister Ryabkov was received by Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship of the Argentine Republic Jorge Taiana.

The sides reviewed the current state of bilateral ties in the political, trade, economic and other fields, and underlined the firm intention of both countries to continue practical efforts to build a strategic partnership in accordance with the Joint Statement of the Presidents of the Russian Federation and the Argentine Republic, adopted in December 2008, and on the basis of the relevant Action Plan, signed by the foreign ministers of the two countries in September 2009.

A constructive exchange of views took place on a broad range of topical issues in world and regional politics. The parties reiterated their resolve to jointly act in the interests of working out effective answers to global challenges and threats in order to build a sustainable, just and harmonious world based on collective principles and international law. In this context, they devoted special attention to interaction for the sake of strengthening international nonproliferation regimes.

The participants of the consultations discussed the specifics of the evolution of Latin American integration processes and prospects for the deepening of Russian-Argentine collaboration in regional integration groupings, primarily in MERCOSUR, of which Argentina currently holds the pro tempore chair.
OREANDA-NEWS. March 11, 2010. Acron has reported that the Moscow Arbitration Court has honored a lawsuit from Dorogobuzh (of Acron Group) and obliged Silvinit to conclude an agreement with Dorogobuzh on the terms of a draft agreement presented by the consumer. The draft agreement contains a pricing formula that envisages annual adjustments in potash prices in line with Russia’s PPI for the previous year. The price for 2010 was set based on the 2009 price multiplied by Russia’s PPI index for 2009. The annual volume of potash delivered is 150,000 tons.

According to the information received from Acron, another, similar lawsuit against Silvinit is now in court, but for technical reasons, the lawsuit lodged by Dorogobuzh was to be heard first.

On the face of it, the news is very positive for independent compound fertilizer producers, which are sensitive to raw material prices. This primarily holds true for companies that have no in-house resource bases, namely, Acron, Dorogobuzh and UralChem. However, we are not inclined yet to overestimate the significance of this news.

This is just a first court ruling and it has not been ruled out that Silvinit will appeal against it in higher courts, in which case litigation could drag out for a year or more. Until a court of last resort hands down its verdict, Silvinit has the right not to conclude the contract on the terms upheld by the first instance court.