Germany's independent competition authority, Deutsches Bundeskartellamt (German Federal Cartel Office), has imposed fines totaling ?,?205 million ($239 million) on "six special steel companies, a trade association and ten individuals" for fixing prices, it said.
"For years, the companies have coordinated on important price components for the sale of special steel," Bundeskartellamt president Andreas Mundt said in a statement late on Thursday July 12."By coordinating the calculation and implementation of uniform scrap and alloy surcharges across the sector and extensively exchanging competitively sensitive information, they have significantly restricted price competition between each other," he added.The companies fined are: ArcelorMittal Commercial Long Deutschland; D??rrenberg Edelstahl; Kind & Co Edelstahlwerke; Saarstahl; Schmidt + Clemens,...