Tribunal reduces penalty on steel mill

To resolve the issue, the company even offered to transfer 15% (126 million) shares of the steel mill to the government without any payment in exchange for gas supply. photo: file
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The Competition Appellate Tribunal has upheld the Competition Commission of Pakistan's (CCP) decision against Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), affirming its ruling that the state-owned enterprise abused its dominant position in the sale of low-carbon steel billets.
The CCP had imposed a penalty of Rs25 million for PSM's anti-competitive and discriminatory conduct. While acknowledging the violation, the tribunal partially allowed PSM's appeal and reduced the penalty to Rs5 million, citing the limited duration of non-compliance.
The CCP took suo motu notice in 2009 following media reports and a complaint from Frontier Foundry that alleged preferential treatment by PSM towards a particular buyer, Abbas Group, at the expense of other market participants. The CCP investigation revealed that PSM withheld supply of key steel products between November 2008 and January 2009 without any objective justification, violating Section 3 of the Competition Ordinance.

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