China announced yesterday it would fine 12 Japanese auto parts suppliers a total of US$202 million for colluding to raise prices in an unfolding anti-monopoly probe of the country’s auto industry.
Beijing has launched a series of investigations into automakers and technology suppliers under its six-year-old anti-monopoly law, in an apparent effort to force down prices. Officials said earlier that Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Chrysler also violated the law.
The Japanese suppliers were found to have colluded improperly, some for up to 10 years, to raise prices of ball bearings and other parts, according to China’s National Development and Reform Commission.
Photo: AFP
“This harmed the legitimate rights and interests of consumers,” the commission said on its Web site.
PRICE COMPLAINTS
Regulators have given few details of the probe but industry analysts say they might have been motivated by complaints about the high price of imported luxury vehicles and replacement parts.
Two of the Japanese companies, ball bearing makers NSK Ltd and NTN Corp, announced on Tuesday they were among those being fined.
The others were components suppliers Hitachi Ltd, Denso Corp, Aisan Industry Co, Mitsubishi Electric Corp, Mitsuba Corp, Yazaki Corp and Furukawa Corp and bearings makers Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp and JTEKT Corp.
The commission said that the components makers were fined a total of 832 million yuan (US$136 million) and the bearings suppliers 403 million yuan, but it gave no breakdown by company.
COMPETITION LAW
The EU Chamber of Commerce in China, in a statement last week, said competition law should not be used to achieve other goals such as forcing price reductions.
The group said that it received reports regulators pressure companies to accept penalties without a full hearing and avoid involving their governments.
A Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesman denied this week that foreign companies were treated unfairly.
On Monday, the government said Mercedes Benz was guilty of “vertical price-fixing.” It said the unit of Germany’s Daimler AG used its control over supplies of replacement parts to charge excessive prices.
Officials have said Volkswagen AG’s Audi luxury unit and Fiat Chrysler Automobile NV’s Chrysler would also face unspecified punishment for violating the law. Toyota Motor Co has said its Lexus unit is under scrutiny.
TECH FIRMS PROBED
Regulators also have announced investigations of Qualcomm Inc and Microsoft Corp.
Last year, Chinese regulators fined five foreign dairies and one from Hong Kong a total of US$108 million on charges they violated the anti-monopoly law by setting minimum prices for their distributors.
TECH CLUSTER: The US company’s new office is in the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan US chip designer Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday launched an office in Tainan’s Gueiren District (歸仁), marking a significant milestone in the development of southern Taiwan’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the Tainan City Government said in a statement. AMD Taiwan general manager Vincent Chern (陳民皓) presided over the opening ceremony for the company’s new office at the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City (沙崙智慧綠能科學城), a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan. Facilities in the new office include an information processing center, and a research and development (R&D) center, the Tainan Economic Development Bureau said. The Ministry
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS