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voestalpine AG reaction to today’s announcement by the German Bundeskartellamt on the subject of the “Special steel cartel”

2018-07-12 | 

With respect to the press release issued today by the Bundeskartellamt, German federal cartel office, on the subject of the “Special steel cartel”, voestalpine AG confirms its involvement in the stated proceedings. The investigations of the Bundeskartellamt into this issue had already been made public back in November 2015, following searches conducted by the Bundeskartellamt on the premises of competitor companies. The Bundeskartellamt procedure was initiated subsequent to an application under the Leniency Notice submitted by voestalpine AG. As the principal witness, no fines were imposed on the voestalpine Group.

The violations were discovered within the Group as the result of routine audits which are undertaken regularly as part of the compliance organization. This proves that the voestalpine AG compliance system is working. The origins of the events lie in the distant past. After their discovery they were thoroughly assessed by voestalpine AG, and then disclosed to the Bundeskartellamt. The employees mainly involved no longer work at voestalpine Group.

The members of the Management Board of voestalpine AG were neither involved in these violations, nor were they aware of them. During the process of assessing the facts, voestalpine has comprehensively reevaluated all its association memberships and activities, and reduced them to a necessary minimum.

voestalpine is currently examining whether customers of the Group companies affected might have suffered as a result of these events. Here it should be noted that the levying of transparent and uniform surcharges was often supported or even demanded by customers.

El Grupo voestalpine

voestalpine es, en sus áreas de negocio, líder mundial en la fabricación de productos industriales y tecnológicos, con competencia combinada en cuanto a materiales de trabajo y procesamiento. El grupo de empresas, que opera en todo el mundo, cuenta con alrededor de 500 sociedades y emplazamientos en más de 50 países en los cinco continentes. Cotiza en la Bolsa de Viena desde 1995. Con sus soluciones de productos y sistemas de máxima calidad de acero y otros metales, es uno de los socios de negocio más importantes de las industrias europeas del automóvil y de electrodomésticos, así como de la industria aeronáutica, de gas y petróleo en todo el mundo. voestalpine es, además, líder mundial en el mercado de la tecnología de desvíos y en el área de carriles especiales, así como en el del acero para herramientas y perfiles especiales. En el ejercicio 2017/18 el Grupo obtuvo, con un volumen de ventas de alrededor de 13.000 millones de euros, un beneficio operativo (EBITDA) de casi 2.000 millones de euros y contó con una plantilla de unas 51.600 personas en todo el mundo.