The Russian Antimonopoly Service has started proceedings against steel and mining company Evraz, the Raspadskaya Coal Company and the Severstal steel giant over differences in export and domestic coal prices, the service said on Thursday.
"The instances of violations can be seen in economic, technological and in other forms by the unreasonable price setting when signing contracts to supply close-burning coking coal...to Russian and foreign consumers," the service said in a statement.
The Antimonopoly Service added that the difference between the prices could not be explained by volumes or transportation costs.
Additionally, the service suspects the companies of "discriminating against Russian consumers in relation to foreign clients".
The Antimonopoly Service said it had conducted a study of the companies in January-March of 2010.
The service also said that its experts, at the request of the Russian government, were analyzing the cost of the basic conversion of metallurgical products, starting with coking coal all the way through iron ore and metal.
A Evraz official told RIA Novosti that it had not received any documents from the Antimonopoly Service. Severstal also declined to comment, while the Raspadskaya management was unavailable.
MOSCOW, July 8 (RIA Novosti)
