OREANDA-NEWS. October 08, 2009. The Expert Council on Developing Competition in Metallurgy, at the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia), discussed the situation in the market of coking coal concentrates, the situation in the car-making market, and the measures for increasing efficiency of procurement of goods, works and services for natural monopolies, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Opening the session, Andrey Tsyganov, Deputy Head of FAS Russia, told the members of the Expert Council about the novelties of the "second package of antimonopoly laws", which came into force on 23rd August 2009.

In particular, he told about new definitions of the dominant market position, monopolistic prices of the goods, the rules for non-discriminatory access to the goods of natural monopolies, prohibitions regarding "vertical" agreements, and new bans towards actions exercised by the authorities. The Deputy Head of FAS Russia told about the changes in the system of control over economic concentration.

Representatives of metallurgical enterprises discussed the situation in the markets of metal raw materials and metal products in the Russian Federation.

Talking about pricing procedures in the market of coking coals concentrates during the period of crisis, Alexey Ulyanov, the Head of the FAS Russia's Department for Industry Control, pointed out recent stabilisation of the situation in the market. "The prices in the domestic market of coking coal are being levelled and they become adequate to the volume of production", said Mr.
Ulyanov.

Mr. Ulyanov called upon the companies to determine contract prices for supplying coking coal concentrated in view of the situation in the markets of metal products and coking coal concentrates in the Russian Federation and abroad.

Alexey Ulyanov drew attention of the members of the Expert Council to inadmissibility of violating the deadlines for filing notifications by the companies that received FAS Russia's determinations.

Denis Davydov, Deputy Head of the FAS Russia's Department for Industry Control reported about the measures for increasing efficiency of procurement of goods, works and services for natural monopolies.

Mr. Davydov emphasised the need for clear and transparent requirements to the procurement participants and expressed his hope that such measures would be included in the "third antimonopoly package".

In his turn, Alexey Ulyanov added that in order to base the position of the antimonopoly authority on the opinion of the expert community and have a unified approach to businesses, the Council should form a Working Group for more detailed analysis of the issue.

"Creating the unified rules for auto loans positively affected competitive environment in the market. Today more than 40,000 auto loans have been granted", stated Mr. Ulyanov, talking about the situation in the car market.

Summing up the session, Alexey Ulyanov also said that FAS Russia, jointly with the Russian Ministry of Industry and Commerce, should review and implement measures towards increasing the share of Russian-made car components used for by foreign car manufacturers for assembling their products in the Russian Federation, in particular, related to a transition of foreign car concerns to the use of metal products from Russian manufacturers.