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.

voestalpine-koncernen

Inom sina affärsområden är voestalpine en världsledande teknik- och industrivarukoncern med kombinerad material- och bearbetningskompetens. Den globala företagsgruppen har ca 500 koncernbolag och koncernanläggningar i mer än 50 länder på alla fem kontinenterna. Den är noterad på Wien-börsen sedan 1995. Med sina högkvalitativa produkt- och systemlösningar av stål och andra metaller räknas den som ledande partner för den europeiska bil- och hushållsapparatindustrin samt luftfarts-, olje- och gasindustrin världen över. voestalpine är dessutom världsledande på växelteknik och specialräls samt verktygsstål och specialprofiler. Under verksamhetsåret 2017/18 uppnådde koncernen ett resultat före skatter och avskrivningar (EBITDA) på knappt 2 miljarder euro med en omsättning på närmare 13 miljarder euro och sysselsatte ca 51 600 medarbetare i hela världen.