South Korea fines steel firms for price-fixing

South Korea steelindus

South Korea’s antitrust regulator on Sunday levied 291.7 billion won ($272 million) in fines against Posco and six other steel companies for price fixing.

South Korea steelindus

The steel companies regularly had meetings to collude with each other on prices for cold-rolled steel, galvanized steel and color steel, the Fair Trade Commission said in a statement. The commission said the collusion occurred in the past several years.

The FTC said it will ask prosecutors to look into the case against a group of six steel companies, including Posco, Hyundai HYSCO and Dongbu Steel Co. .

Posco was slapped with a fine of KRW98.33 billion, the largest of the group. The FTC said the country’s top steelmaker joined with others in 2005 to create “zinc surcharge,” aimed at passing a surge in zinc prices onto customers.

Posco said they were not involved in price collusion. The company controls more than 60% of the domestic galvanized steel market.

“We will take a legal action to prove we are not guilty,” company spokeswoman Han Mi-hyang said.

 

source: MarketWatch

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