FTC fines $271.6 mn on seven steel makers in Korea for price fixing

Seven steel makers in South Korea have been slapped with a combined 300 billion won ($271.6 million) fine for price fixing.

Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said Tuesday that it imposed 300 billion won in fine and issued correction order to seven local steel manufacturers for colluding to fix prices from 2010 to 2018.

The anti-trust watchdog slapped a 90.9 billion won in fine on Hyundai Steel, 49.9 billion won on Dongkuk Steel Mill, 49.6 billion won on Kisco, 42.9 billion won on YK Steel, 34.6 billion won on Daehan Steel, 31.3 billion won on Hankuk Steel and Mill and 638 million won on Korea Steel Shapes.

The agency will convene a full session next week to deliberate whether to report them to the prosecution.

[Photo provided by Hyundai Steel]

The companies are accused of colluding to lower the bidding price for scrap iron, a raw material for steel bar, by holding private meetings 120 times from June 2010 to April 2016.

After the FTC¡¯s on-site inspection on April 2016, they exchanged price-related information behind closed doors by using false names to avoid getting caught, according to the watchdog.

This marks the fourth largest fine the FTC has imposed so far.

The companies said they will file an administrative suit against the FTC, saying that they were not given enough time to explain their position and finding the fine too excessive.

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