Russia won't punish steel producers for high prices

MOSCOW, April 8 (Reuters) - Russia does not plan to punish local steel producers for increasing prices in the domestic market, Deputy Industry Minister Andrei Dementyev said on Thursday.

"It is possible that we would choke the metallurgists to death, but in such a case, we will have to use Chinese steel," Dementyev said.

Giacomo Baizini, the chief financial officer of Russia's second largest producer Evraz HK1q.L, said last month that domestic prices are up $50-$100 per tonne from a year ago. [ID:nLDE62T1LJ]

This has led to calls by domestic industry to slap a 15 percent export duty on Russian steel if producers do not agree to fix prices at a set level until next April, according to recent reports in the Moscow press.

However, Dementyev said prices for Russian steel consumers remain below world levels.

"Today, internal prices are in any case lower, but it is not possible to support them artificially," he said. (Reporting by Dasha Korsunskaya and Polina Devitt, writing by Alfred Kueppers, editing by Maria Kiselyova)