Anti-competitive practices: CCP raids premises of cement association, confiscates records

ISLAMABAD: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), as part of an enquiry launched in May 2020 to investigate the possible anti-competitive activities by the cement manufacturers, on Thursday raided two premises of All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) in Lahore.

The CCP team confiscated records during the raid that might help establishing alleged anti-competitive practices of the influential cement sector. According to CCP’s announcement on Thursday, two different teams entered and searched the APCMA main office and a member of APCMA.

Since a senior employee of one of major cement company is also the office bearer of the APCMA’s Executive Committee, representing the North Region, therefore, the Commission also conducted search and inspection of the premises of member concern with the objective to gather evidence of any collusive arrangement.

The enquiry was started based on the information gathered through various media reports, and concerns and complaints expressed regarding a concurrent increase in cement prices, particularly during the month of April 2020.

The reports indicated that an increase of Rs45–Rs55 per cement bag was apparently decided in a meeting of the cement manufacturers held under the umbrella of APCMA. Some of the media reports also quoted cement dealers, saying that the leading cement companies in the north region had collectively decided to increase the cement prices by Rs55 per bag.