Japanese car carrier company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (KLine) has agreed to pay a fine of R98.9 million for price-fixing, market division and tender collusion related to the shipment of Toyota vehicles from South Africa.
The vehicles were for export to Europe, North America, the Mediterranean coast and the Caribbean islands via Europe, West Africa, East Africa and Latin America.
Sipho Ngwema, the head of communications at the commission, said yesterday although the commission charged KLine with 15 separate instances of contraventions of the Competition Act, the company had admitted to eight contraventions.
KLine’s settlement agreement with the commission still has to be confirmed by the Competition Tribunal.
Ngwema said the commission’s investigation, initiated in September 2012, found that from at least 2002 until 2013 KLine and two other Japanese-based companies, Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK), and Norwegian-based Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) colluded on a tender issued by Toyota South Africa Motors (Tsam) to transport Toyota vehicles from South Africa abroad by sea.
