Austrian steelmaker voestalpine AG has announced that Germany's Federal Cartel Office has conducted an inspection in its Linz office as part of the current investigations of the cartel office against steel producers.
According to voestalpine’s statement, the reason for the inspection is the suspicion of anti-competitive practices in the market for heavy plates and Austrian authorities are cooperating in accordance within the European legal framework. The company also stated that it takes these allegations seriously and is supporting the authorities in their work.
According to a Reuters report, voestalpine is involved in another investigation by German authorities into possible fixing of alloy surcharges, which dates back to November 2015. Meanwhile, the company was also one of four companies fined in 2012 for fixing the price of railway tracks in Germany, Reuters stated.