Federal Anti-Monopoly Service approves of the establishment of the nuclear power holding

14.12.2006 // Press-service of FAS

Federal Anti-Monopoly Service approves of the consequences of the establishment of the nuclear power holding for competition in the nuclear power sector

On Dec 12 2006 the advisor of the head of Rosatom, the director general of Atomenergomash Kirill Komarov made a report at the meeting of the board of the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service.

In his report «On the Establishment of A Holding Company in Nuclear Power Machine Building and Its Influence on the Competition in the Sphere,» Komarov told about the state of Russia’s nuclear power sector, the objectives of the establishment of the holding, analyzed the structure of the holding and its consequences for the competition in the sector. He also informed the audience about the holding’s tasks in 2007–2010.

In 2005 Russia’s NPPs worked at a total capacity of 23.2 GW and produced 152.9 bln KW/h (16% of the total electricity output). In line with Russia’s energy strategy by 2020 the NPP output may amount to 300 bln KW/h (23% of the total).
 
«The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service gives positive assessment of the consequences the establishment of the holding has had on the competition situation in the sector,» the deputy head of the service Anatoly Golomolzin said after the meeting. He said that the holding is based on «vertical integration» of NPP equipment producers and this will not reduce competition. «Moreover, this will provide our nuclear power engineers with equal conditions in their competition with the 3–4 leading foreign nuclear power companies.»

Golomolzin said that «it is important that there is no „horizontal integration“ within the holding, i.e. the holding will not comprise companies operating on domestic markets and making similar production.»

«We will make individual decision on producers acting on low competition markets, particularly, we will decide if they will be involved in the holding or we will set up a new production inside the holding for protecting them from monopolistic plot,» Golomolzin said.

«We also plan to form a new competitor on the non-specialized machine building market where the holding has weak or no representation at all. For example, nuclear power companies extracting coal successfully rivaled with coal miners in the Far East,» Golomolzin said.

He noted that the Service has set up a special working group for monitoring the process of the holding