Speaking of Carbon Fibre, I thought this was of interest.
Chris S.

December 17, 2002
EU Imposes $83M in Fines for Price-Fixing


BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Commission on Tuesday fined 11 companies $83 million in two separate

price-fixing scandals involving graphite and spices.

In the graphite cartel, eight companies were assessed a total of 60.6 million euro ($62.4 million)for

violating EU competition rules between 1993 and 1998.

The Commission said that a two-year investigation found that the companies held regular meetings to divvy up

the market and keep prices at inflated levels. Specialty graphites are used in everything from engineering to

electronics.

Germany's SGL Carbon AG received the highest fine of 27.75 million euro ($28.57 million), while Japan's Toyo

Tanso must pay 10.79 million euro ($11.11 million).

Other fines levied include 6.97 million euro ($7.18 million) for France's Carbon Lorraine SA, 6.97 million

euro ($7.18 million) for Japan's Tokai Carbon Co., and 3.58 million euro ($3.69 million) for Ibiden Co. and

Nippon Steel Chemical Co. also of Japan. Another two Japanese firms, Itech and Intech Inc. were fined 980,000

euro ($1 million).

SGL's fine was the highest ``because it was the ringleader,'' the Commission said, while the other companies

got reductions in exchange for their cooperation in the probe. U.S.-based GraphTech International Ltd. was

given immunity ``because it revealed the cartel,'' the Commission said.