Chilean shipping firm agrees to pay Chinese fine for price fixing

SANTIAGO - Chilean shipping firm Compania Sudamericana de Vapores (CSAV) agreed to pay nearly $500,000 in fines to China for price fixing, media reported Monday.

China's National Development and Reform Commission issued an statement on Monday to fine eight international sea freight shipping companies, including CSAV, for violating anti-monopoly laws.

Chilean daily La Tercera said CSAV had to pay $475,000 because of colluding with other firms to keep fees elevated for shipping autos, trucks and construction machinery on five different transport routes. The other firms have also been sanctioned.

Latin America's largest shipping company and one of the oldest, had colluded for at least four years, from 2008 to late 2012, with the others to keep costs high.

"CSAV strongly rejects all actions that run counter to free competition, not only because they violate existing laws, but also because they contravene the values and principles to which we are committed in all our business dealings," the company said in a press release.

The fines range from 4 percent to 9 percent of the companies' profits from services rendered to China in 2014.

One of the firms, Japan's Nippon Yusen Kaisha, was exempt from paying the fine since it revealed the price-fixing scheme and provided key evidence. South Korea's Eukor Car Carriers faced the steepest fine of 284 million yuan ($43.7 million), the company press release said.

The other firms are Japan's Mitsui OSK Lines, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha and Eastern Car Liner, Chile's Compania Chilena de Navegacion Interoceanica S.A. and Norway's Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics.

The Chinese investigation coincided with others by the United States and other countries.

CSAV said the company cooperated fully with the investigations.

In February 2014, CSAV also reached an agreement with the US government to pay some $9 million in fines.

The company said it has also created the post of a compliance officer to ensure the obedience of laws and regulations governing the global shipping industry.