CHINA/FILE: China fines Japanese auto parts makers

Record ID: 1960264

  • Title: CHINA/FILE: China fines Japanese auto parts makers
  • Date: 20th August 2014
  • Summary: BEIJING, CHINA (RECENT) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (CCTV - NO ACCESS CHINA) DOCUMENT STAFF OF THE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND REFORM COMMISSION (NDRC) WORKING ON INVESTIGATION FILE ON TABLE STAFF LOOKING TOGETHER AT DOCUMENTS VARIOUS OF DETAILS OF DOCUMENTS (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF THE SECOND DIVISION OF THE ANTI-TRUST BUREAU OF CHINA'S NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND REFORM
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  • Location: Japan, China
  • City:
  • Country: Japan China
  • Topics: Asia / Pacific,Business,Politics,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVAEIB5A39BPI4X0564TJUP1JCYU
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: China's anti-monopoly regulator said on Wednesday (August 20) it has ordered 12 Japanese auto part and bearings makers to pay fines totalling 1.24 billion yuan ($201.80 million) for manipulating prices.
    Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd, Denso Corp and Mitsubishi Electric Corp are among the autoparts makers that were fined after the National Development Reform Commission (NDRC) found they had colluded to reduce competition and establish favourable pricing on their products.
    In a statement on its website, the NDRC said that the price-fixing agreements were in violation of China's anti-monopoly law and improperly affected the pricing for auto parts, entire vehicles and bearings.
    "China is a country ruled by law, everyone should be equal before the law. So, it's no matter whether they are domestic or foreign-funded firms, as long as they violate laws, they will be investigated, prosecuted and punished," the NDRC's secretary general Li Pumin said in a news briefing in Beijing on Wednesday.
    NSK Ltd, NTN Corp, and Jtekt Corp were among the four bearings companies fined by the regulator.
    Hitachi Automotive, a subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd, along with bearings firm Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp, were not fined since they were the first firms to report the monopoly agreements and provide evidence to the regulator, the NDRC said.
    A report on official broadcaster CCTV showed staff from the NDRC conducting their investigation in the companies.
    "After receiving the car manufacturing companies' price inquiries, they would have discussions to decide who is going to accept the order, and specifically which parts from the order form each one was going to take. First they would split up and share the order, and then they would discuss the prices, basically 'how much you are charging, how much am I going to charge'," explained Wu Dongmei, deputy director of the second division of the NDRC's anti-trust bureau.
    The bureau's deputy director, Lu Yanchun, told CCTV the move aimed to protect others involved in the auto market, now the world's largest.
    "Our anti-monopoly investigation into the behaviour in this case aims to bring back to this market the sort of competition that it should have, thereby protecting the interests of the transactors, from the car dealership down to the consumer," he said.
    The regulators' ruling comes as China intensifies efforts to bring companies into compliance with an anti-monopoly law enacted in 2008.
    The auto sector has been under particular scrutiny amid accusations by state media that global car makers are overcharging customers.
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