FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1995                         (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888


      PITTSBURGH METALS PRODUCER PLEADS GUILTY IN NATIONWIDE
                     PRICE FIXING CONSPIRACY


     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The subsidiary of one of the world's
leading producers of ferrosilicon products, which are used in the
production of steel and cast iron, pleaded guilty today to
conspiring to fix prices of commodity ferrosilicon products, said
the Department of Justice.
     The criminal case, filed by the Department's Antitrust
Division in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, New York, charged
Elkem Metals Company, a subsidiary of Elkem A/S of Norway, with
participating in a conspiracy between late 1989 and mid 1991 to
fix prices of commodity ferrosilicon products sold in the United
States.  Commodity ferrosilicon products are alloys of iron and
silicon, used primarily in the production of steel and cast iron
to improve the properties of the finished product such as its
strength and corrosion resistance.  Sales in the ferrosilicon
products industry is more than $100 million a year.
     Anne K. Bingaman, Assistant Attorney General in charge of
the Antitrust Division, said the charges resulted from a grand
jury investigation in Buffalo, New York, into suspected collusion
by companies in the ferroalloys industry.  The ongoing
investigation is being conducted by the Division's New York Field
Office with the assistance of the Buffalo office of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation.   
     The maximum penalty for a corporation convicted of a
violation of the Sherman Act committed after November 16, 1990,
is a fine of not more than the greatest of $10 million, twice the
pecuniary gain the corporation derived from the crime, or twice
the pecuniary loss to the victims of the crime.
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95-498