Court upholds fine for flat steelmakers

A Brazilian federal court has upheld a 58.4mn real (US$20.5mn) fine imposed on three local flat steelmakers accused of forming a cartel, business daily Valor Economico. Anti-trust regulator Cade accused Rio de Janeiro-based CSN (NYSE: SID), Belo Horizonte-based Usiminas and Sao Paulo-based Cosipa of coordinating price adjustments in 1996-97. While the court upheld the fine, it did not accept one of Cade's arguments, opening the way for an appeal. Indeed, all three steelmakers do plan to appeal the court's decision, their spokespersons said. "The decision is polemical since the court did not see any indications of a cartel, that is it did not agree with Cade's accusation, but upheld the fine," a Usiminas spokesperson told BNamericas. Cade fined the companies the equivalent of 1% of their revenue in October 1999 for supposedly forming the cartel.