18 years of bid rigging...46 billion won in fines from seven companies, including CJ Logistics and Hanjin

[Infostock Daily= Reporter Park Sang-In]

 The Fair Trade Commission announced on the 13th that it will impose a total of 46.04 billion won in fines on seven companies for colluding in 3,796 bids for steel product transportation services conducted by POSCO from 2001 to 2018.

According to the fines by company, CJ Logistics has 9.455 billion won, Samil 9.34 billion won, Hanjin 8.685 billion won, Dongbang 8.641 billion won, Chunil cargo Transportation 8.07 billion won, Chunil TLS 23 million won, and Haedong 1.89 billion won.

Since 2001, POSCO has selected operators to transport steel products through competitive bidding instead of private contracts, with seven companies colluding since the first bidding in 2001 to get higher prices while winning orders at the previous level.

After forming a consultative body, they decided in advance the percentage of goods each company would win and then gathered in the conference room to jointly decide on the bid price so that the agreement could be realized.

The Fair Trade Commission will also impose a correction order to prevent any acts such as pre-allocation of transportation supplies or collusion in bidding prices.

Reporter Park Sang-In si2020@infostock.co.kr