SINGAPORE — Four Japanese manufacturers have been fined a combined S$9.3 million for taking part in a conspiracy to fix the prices of ball bearings, in what is the Competition Commission of Singapore’s (CCS) largest financial penalty levied and the first involving an international cartel.

The CCS said yesterday Nachi-Fujikoshi (NFC), NSK, NTN and JTEKT, along with their Singaporean subsidiaries, had engaged in anti-competitive agreements and unlawful exchange of information in respect of the price and sale of ball and roller bearings sold to aftermarket customers in Singapore.

“CCS’ investigation revealed that (the four companies) were competitors and met regularly at meetings both in Japan and Singapore, where they exchanged information, discussed and agreed on sales prices for bearings sold to their respective aftermarket customers in Singapore, so as to maintain each participant’s market share and protect their profits and sales,” said the regulator, adding that these companies hold a combined estimated 60 to 70 per cent share of the ball bearing market in Singapore.

Those meetings date back to as early as 1980 until 2011, the CCS said.

“Singapore is an open economy that imports everything. With this ruling, I think it will create awareness of a cartel’s impact on price competitiveness,” CCS chief executive Toh Han Li said yesterday. “With international cooperation, we hope to eliminate the kind of conduct whereby businesses that operate globally are able to raise prices to the detriment of companies they are selling to.”

NFC was fined S$7.6 million, while NSK will have to pay S$1.3 million and NTN, which was found to have the shortest infringement period, was fined S$455,652, said the CCS. The three companies declined to comment when approached by TODAY.

JTEKT, who blew the whistle on the cartel, was granted full immunity from financial penalties under a leniency programme.

“However, we express our deepest regrets,” said JTEKT president Tetsuo Agata in a statement yesterday. “We have taken appropriate measures to prevent recurrence and have intensified efforts to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.”

The CSS’ ruling follows a previous case against the same companies by Japanese and Australian competition regulators last year. The European Union’s Competition Commission in March also found that the four companies — alongside two European companies — had colluded over a seven-year period until July 2011 across the European Economic Area. In the EU case, NTN, NSK and NFC were fined around €201 million (S$343 million), €62 million and €4 million respectively. JTEKT was not fined because it disclosed the cartel.

Mr Toh said yesterday that the companies have since stepped up their compliance efforts. “As far as we’re concerned, since 2011, these companies have been behaving competitively after the implementation of compliance programmes,” he said. The involved companies have two months to pay their fines or make an appeal.

WONG WEI HAN