OREANDA-NEWS. July 27, 2010. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with steel owners in Chelyabinsk – in what has become an annual summer meeting. There really were no big surprises – unlike the 2008 attack on Mechel, reported the press-centre of OTKRITIE Financial Corporation.

The only real surprise was Putin expressing regret about those Mechel comments two years ago. He now says that Mechel is one of the most responsible firms in the Russian steel industry in terms of signing long-term contracts and its pricing policy. He suggested that others should follow Mechel’s lead.

This was the second meeting with steel owners in the past three months as the government pushes forward with its policy for the steel industry to adjust its pricing policy to be less volatile (some steel products were up over 30% in price in 2Q10).

Thus, we do not see this issue going away anytime soon. That said, with steel prices having pulled back substantially from their 2Q10 peaks – there is less pressure on steelmakers currently regarding these pricing issues.