“Silvinit”, its distributor “Mineral trading” and “Uralkaliy” violated the law on competition
Give the money back!
“Silvinit”, its distributor “Mineral trading” and “Uralkaliy” violated the law on competition; such announcement was made by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) by results of investigation of claims made by clients of the companies. In 2009 according to the FAS the economically justified price for muriate (the raw material for production of fertilizers) was set at 3,755 rubles per ton). The price at which “Uralkaliy” and “Silvinit” sold it to consumers was at least 5% higher – 3,955 rubles per ton (“Uralkaliy” sold insignificant amounts at 4,750 rubles per ton). Besides, the FAS concluded that clients of “Silvinit” paid more because of the margin received by “Mineral trading”. In 2009 “Silvinit” sold to Russian producers of fertilizers 762,000 tons of muriate, “Uralkaliy” – 600,000, which means that the clients could have overpaid to the companies 152.4m rubles and over 120m rubles respectively.
The price of 3,755 rubles per ton of muriate was set as indicative (without adjustments for inflation and tariff growth) for contracts for 2010, the FAS reported. “Uralkaliy” has not yet executed contracts for the whole 2010. At the same time “Mineral trading” has already agreed to deliver 803,000 tons of muriate to “Evrokhim”, “Fosagro”, “Meleuzovsk fertilizers” and “Minudobrenia” (Rossosh). One of the clients of the company and an employee of “Silvinit” said that they work with the fixed price of 4,750 rubles per ton. “Silvinit” will have to close contracts at the new price directly with clients, since the FAS directed that the muriate company should terminate the contract with “Mineral trading”. Representatives of the trader were not available for comments; its owners are unknown.
A representative of “Uralkaliy” refused to give any comments, while his colleagues in “Silvinit” said that the company will appeal against the resolution of the FAS to court.
Read more (in Russian).
