Didn't ride: Anatoly Sedykh should prepare

The United Metallurgical Company, owned by Anatoly Sedykh, could inflate prices for carriage wheels. And this is not the first time. It is quite possible that the wheeled manipulations of the Sedykh roll thanks to friendship with influential people - Andrei Komarov, Viktor Khristenko, Tatyana Golikova.

The FAS opened antimonopoly cases against the largest manufacturers of wheels for railway cars in Russia - the Vyksa Metallurgical Plant (VMZ; included in the Joint Metallurgical Company - OMK, owned by Anatoly Sedykh) and the Evraz structures Evraz NTMK and Evraz TK. Employees of the antimonopoly department suspect that metallurgists overestimated prices.

According to the Union of Railway Operators, wheel prices have not changed. However, the raw materials for their manufacture have become cheaper.

Details - in the material of the correspondent of The Moscow Post in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

Gray-haired "drives Levak"?

Vyksa plant - city-forming. It has been operating since 1757, and today it is the largest domestic manufacturer of steel welded pipes and railway wheels.

This is not the first time the FAS has accused manufacturers of solid-rolled wheels of overpricing their products. The main customer - Russian Railways - explained that he was forced to buy new wheels every few years, because the old ones were stumbling. But if earlier the wheels were bought profitably from the Ukrainian company Interpipe, then from 2020 they stopped.

After that, prices for all-metal (CCC) wheels took off sharply. Resellers had them several times more expensive. To save the situation, JSC "Trading House of Russian Railways" specially arranged tenders, they turned to the factories, but they did not increase supplies even for the state corporation. But the dealers had them to catch. It turns out that it is more profitable for Sedykh to fuse the "left" to resellers than to participate in fair tenders. Is there any interest here to deliberately keep extremely high prices

In 2019, the price of wheels increased by more than 40%, the FAS noted. But according to the railway workers themselves, the tariffs for the wheels rose almost 5 times - instead of 23 thousand, they were sometimes purchased for 101 thousand rubles. OMK made excuses, explaining the rise in prices in low demand.

But allow this low demand, when the oligarch almost asks, including the state to sell the wheels.

Friendship by calculation?

OMK director Anatoly Sedykh enjoys the patronage of the head of the Chelyabinsk pipe-rolling plant and former senator Andrei Komarov, who was charged with commercial bribery in 2014. True, two years later, the case against him was dismissed.

Komarov and Sedykh even worked together for some time Komarov headed the board of directors of OMK, and Sedykh joined the ChelPipe directors. The partners wanted to attract other pipe manufacturers to the alliance and jointly go to the IPO. However, a year later, Komarov and Sedykh decided to disperse, maintaining friendly relations. Market participants say their business styles were incompatible.

Komarov is associated with his ex-business partner - ex-Minister of Industry and Trade, and now - Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission Viktor Khristenko. It is possible that he could assist both Komarov in solving his problems and Sedykh when receiving tidbits. Moreover, Khristenko still has his own people in the government. For example, the wife is Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova.

Khristenko, like Komarov, comes from Chelyabinsk. In those years when Komarov took control of ChTPZ, Khristenko worked as the first deputy head of the administration of the Chelyabinsk region and the presidential envoy in it. Then he was deputy prime minister for ten years, at one time (between the resignation of Mikhail Kasyanov and the appointment of Mikhail Fradkov) he served as prime minister. Then for eight years he was the permanent minister of industry. Komarov does not hide his friendship with Khristenko, calls him a senior comrade, but ChelPipe categorically denies any of his participation in the business. Although Khristenko's son Vladimir is still listed as a member of the ChelPipe Board of Directors, and before that he was the general director of the Rimera oilfield service company, which is part of the ChelPipe group.

Anatoly Sedykh's company invariably becomes the owner of the most profitable orders, including state ones. So, for example, VMZ had a row for the production and supply of pipes for the Nord Stream-2 project. At the same time, there are enterprises of a similar profile in the country with much larger capacities. Maybe VMZ agreed on such an order for a "rollback"?

One of the old and regular customers of VMZ was Gazprom, to which the plant supplied pipes. But a few years ago, he refused his services due to the exorbitant high cost. Either Gazprom is greedy, or VMZ is insolent, which is much more likely.

Revenue from VMZ is growing every year. True, not always due to the sale of wheels. For example, recently VMZ has been making good money by accommodating refugees from Ukraine.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

Moreover, it is VMZ that is Sedykh's favorite enterprise, and he does not like to invest in others. Recall, for example, the story of the Chusovsky Metallurgical Plant (ChMZ). OMK leaders solemnly promised to modernize the plant and even received a loan guarantee of 21 billion rubles from the state. However, the promises were never fulfilled.

Anatoly Sedykh abandoned the plan to modernize the plant in 2014, while 4 billion rubles have already been invested in the project.

We must not forget about the tragic incident in the pool in the city of Chusov, which is in the Perm Territory. The roof collapsed there, killing 14 people. The pool belonged to OMK. However, the owners of OMK and Sedykh, among other things, did not bear any responsibility for the tragedy.

It turns out that OMK can inflate prices, sell wheels to the left and not bear any responsibility for this?

However, after The Moscow Post sends the materials at its disposal to the competent authorities, those who are supposed to be interested in the activities of Mr. Sedykh will be interested in the activities of Mr. Sedykh.