Petrochemical Firms Face Additional Fines
By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
South Korea's Fair Trade Commission (FTC), which imposed huge fines on the country’s 10 major petrochemical companies for price-fixing of a couple of products earlier this year, is set to slap seven to eight firms with additional fines for fixing prices of other products.
FTC officials said Thursday that the antitrust regulator has found evidence that proves that some petrochemical companies have colluded to fix prices of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDP).
``We will convene a general meeting next week to decide the level of punishment and the amount of fines for the latest case of price-fixing,’’ an FTC official said on condition of anonymity.
In particular, the fines that have been and will be imposed on petrochemical companies are expected to be the largest ever in a single industry, since the FTC is also examining alleged price-fixing of other products.
The FTC imposed a total of 105.1 billion won ($113.7 million) in fines on 10 petrochemical companies including SK for profiteering by fixing prices of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) over the past 11 years.
``Fines for the latest case would not be as high as those in February since the period of illicit activities is not that long,’’ the FTC official said. ``But many of the firms involved in the previous case are again included in the latest case.’’
Following the February case of HDPE and PP, the FTC has been probing the alleged price-fixing in six other products such as toluene-xylene, styrene monomer, ethylene glycol and ethylene oxide as well as LDPE and LLDP in the past months.
Industry sources expressed worries over the possibility that the FTC investigation will continue through next year.