Wednesday, March 31, 2010

 

Eurofer notifies Commission on possible anti-Competitive

Practices and Abuse of Dominant Position related
to the Seaborne Iron Ore Market

 

Today Eurofer formally notified the European Commission about possible anti-competitive practices and abuse of dominant position by the main iron ore suppliers.

 

Strong indications of illicit coordination of prices increases and pricing models and pressure on individual steel producers to accept these changes indicate in Eurofer’s view that the EU competition rules, notably art. 101 and art. 102 may have been breached.

 

“As stated by Eurofer already the prices increases of 80-100% demanded by iron ore producers do not reflect the realities of the steel market and cannot be justified by demand conditions for iron ore” says Gordon Moffat, Director General of Eurofer.” That is why we are calling upon the Commission, as regulator, to examine closely what is happening among iron ore suppliers”.

 

Eurofer has already indicated to the European Commission its concern at the very high level of concentration on the seaborne iron ore market which is dominated by just 3 producers (BHPB, Rio Tinto and Vale) and the unacceptability therefore of the proposed joint venture between BHPB and Rio Tinto.

 

 

EUROFER – the European Confederation of Iron and Steel Industries – represents the interests of 60 steel companies and national steel federations from 23 EU Member States which are combining almost 100% of EU steel production.

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