Found guilty of price-fixing in China, Japanese auto suppliers face heavy penalties.
At least 12 Japanese auto suppliers have been found guilty of price-fixing in China and will face heavy penalties, charged by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The NDRC, formed to investigate by domestic and international automakers and spare parts suppliers in China under the Anti-Monopoly Act, has charged the companies with collusive horizontal-pricing agreements with actual or potential competitors.
The imposed fines are reported to amount to about $200 million. The regulator is allowed to fine defaulters upto 10 percent of their previous year’s revenue.
So far, two of the 12 suppliers, NTN Corp, a bearings producer, and its rival NSK Ltd, have announced the fines imposed on them. According to company statements, while NTN will have to pay 119.2 million Yuan, NSK will shell out 2.9 billion Yen in penalties.
However, Hitachi Automotive Systems, an auto parts manufacturer, and the Nachi-Fujikoshi Corporation, a bearings manufacturer, were exempted from fines, as the NDRC said that they had reported monopolistic agreements to the authorities and provided evidence.
Japanese auto suppliers are at the top of the global auto parts supply chain list. In China alone about 27 percent of the auto parts imported were Japanese, valued at $9.58 billion.
