Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) initiated a case against Interpipe industrial group, which includes Interpipe Ukraine LLC and Interpipe NTZ PJSC, on charges of violation of legislation on protection of economic competition through abuse of monopolistic position in the primary commodity sale market.
According to AMCU information on Friday, the case was initiated on November 23.
It specifies that signs of violations consist in unreasonable increase of commodity prices and in establishing different conditions for similar deals with commodity purchasers by the companies of the group without any reasonable grounds.
The Committee found that the Interpipe group has signs of a monopolistic (dominant) position in the nationwide market of primary sale of goods.
“Having analyzed the pricing behavior of the Interpipe group, the Committee did not identify objective reasons (factors) that could be the reason for increasing prices for the group’s goods during the investigated period. In addition, the Committee found no correlation between the dynamics of selling prices of goods and their cost components, in particular – changes in the cost of procurement, changes in wages, etc.,” stated in a press release.
The Committee also found no correlation in the contracts of Interpipe Ukraine LLC between the amount of goods purchased by different buyers and its price under otherwise identical contract conditions.
The press service reminds that in connection with the introduction of martial law in Ukraine, the information on residents of Ukraine in the part concerning the specification of the type of activity is not made public until the end of martial law in Ukraine.
“Interpipe is a Ukrainian industrial company producing seamless pipes and railway wheels. The company’s products are supplied to more than 80 countries worldwide through a network of sales offices located in the key markets of the CIS, the Middle East, North America and Europe. In 2021, the company sold 602 thnd mt of tubes and 174 thnd mt of railroad products. The company sells its railroad products under the KLW brand.
Interpipe has about 10 thsd employees. In 2021 the company paid to the budgets of all levels nearly 3 billion hryvnias.
The company has five industrial assets: “Interpipe Nizhnedniprovsk Tube Rolling Plant (NTZ)”, “Interpipe Novomoskovsk Tube Plant (NMTZ)”, “Interpipe Niko-Tube”, “Dnepropetrovsk Vtormet” and electric steelmaking complex “Dneprostal” branded “Interpipe Steel”.
The ultimate owner of Interpipe Limited is Ukrainian businessman Viktor Pinchuk and his family members.
