Tag: Industrial Goods

The consent order required the divestiture of Blue Circle Industries PLC's cement business serving the Great Lakes region of Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and New York; its cement business in the Syracuse, New York; and its lime business in the southeast United States. These divestitures settled antitrust concerns stemming from Lafarge's proposed merger with Blue Circle. The two firms are market leaders in the industry for cement and lime.

Metso settled charges that if its acquisition of Svedala Industries AB were allowed to proceed as planned, competition would be lessened in four rock processing equipment markets: primary gyratory crushers; jaw crushers; cone crushers; and grinding mills. The firms agreed to divest Metso's worldwide primary gyratory crusher and grinding mill businesses and Svedala's worldwide jaw crusher and cone crusher businesses. The three crusher businesses would be purchased by Sandvik AB, a Swedish corporation; the grinding mill business would be purchased by Outokumpu of Finland. Metso and Svedala are the two largest suppliers of rock processing equipment in the world.

Final order permitted Valspar's acquisition of Lilly Industries, Inc., but requires Valspar to divest its mirror coatings business to Spraylet Corporation. Mirror coatings are applied to the back of a piece of glass in order to produce a mirror.

A consent order requires Agrium to divest a deepwater terminal near Portland, Oregon, an up water terminal in central Washington and other assets settling charges concerning its proposed acquisition of the nitrogen fertilizer business of Union Oil Company of California. Agrium and Unocal are the leading producers in the Northwest of nitrogen fertilizer – anhydrous ammonia, urea and UAN 32% solution – ingredients used for plant growth.

A consent order permits MacDermid’s acquisition of Polyfibron Technologies, Inc. and requires the divestiture, among other things, of Polyfibron’s liquid photopolymer business to Chemence Inc. According to the complaint, the acquisition would result in a monopoly in the production, distribution and sale of liquid and solid photopolymer in North America. Photopolymers are used to make flexographic printing plates.

A final order requires the divestiture of large titanium stainless steel and large nickel-based superalloy production assets (structural cast metals used in the manufacture of aerospace components) to settle antitrust concerns stemming from its acquisition of Wyrnan-Gordon Company. The order requires Precision Castparts to divest Wyman-Gordon's titanium foundry in Albany, Oregon and Wyman- Gordon's Large Cast Parts foundry in Groton, Connecticut.

The Commission accepted a proposed consent agreement with Quexco Incorporated, a company whose parent entity is Howard M. Meyers. The consent agreement related to the proposed acquisition by Quexco of Pacific Dunlop GNB Corporation, which is owned by Pacific Dunlop Limited. Both companies are involved in the secondary smelting of lead.  The parties subsequently decided to abandon the sale of GNB to Quexco, which eliminated the need for the relief contained in the consent agreement. The Commission voted to withdraw the consent agreement and close the investigation.

Under a settlement with the FTC, ABB agreed to divest the Analytical Division of Elsag Bailey Process Automation N.V. to Siemens Corporation to address FTC concerns that the acquisition of Elsag would substantially reduce competition in the market for process gas chromatographs and process mass spectrometers, analytical instruments used to measure the chemical composition of a gas or liquid used in petrochemical refining, pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing, and pulp and paper processing.

To settle FTC charges, LaFarge, Corp. agreed to restructure its agreement to purchase certain assets of Holnam, Inc.  LaFarge and Holnam are two of five competitors in the portland cement market in the Puget Sound area. In February 1998, LaFarge and Holnam signed a letter of intent detailing an agreement under which LaFarge would buy Holnam's Seattle cement plant, cement distribution terminal in Vancouver, Washington, a rock quarry in Twin Rivers, Washington, and related assets. The FTC alleged that a provision of the sales agreement between LaFarge and Holnam would have imposed a penalty on LaFarge if it produced quantities of cement in excess of 85 percent of the Holnam plant's capacity. According to the FTC, this provision would encourage LaFarge to restrict the output of cement at the Seattle plant to avoid the production penalty and would prevent an increase in supply and a reduction in price for cement in the Puget Sound area. To restore competition, LaFarge and Holnam agreed to drop the production penalty clause.

Federal-Mogul, one of the world's leading producers of thinwall bearings used in car, truck and heavy equipment engines, agreed to divest the thinwall bearings assets it acquired in its $2.4 billion takeover of T&N, plc. to settle FTC charges that the acquisition would likely substantially reduce competition in the worldwide market for thinwall bearings. According to the FTC, Federal-Mogul and T&N, headquartered in Manchester, England, have a combined market share in the United States of nearly 80 percent or more in each of the four markets identified in the complaint. The FTC consent order requiree Federal-Mogul to divest the thinwall bearings business of T&N, which includes the assets and plants that T&N uses to make thinwall bearings, as well as intellectual property that T&N uses to develop and design new bearings to meet the needs of engines that OEMs will develop in the future. To ensure that the divested thinwall bearings business would be in the same position that T&N had been in terms of research, the proposed order identifies individuals in T&N who worked on bearings research and development, and requires Federal-Mogul and T&N to assign those personnel to the businesses to be divested.

Nortek, Inc., agreed to settle FTC charges that its $242.5 million acquisition of NuTone, its closest competitor in the hard-wired residential intercom business, would violate federal antitrust laws by creating a dominant firm that could drive up prices in the market.  Nortek, based in Providence, Rhode Island, controls 31 percent of the market for hard- wired residential intercoms, through its M & S subsidiary. NuTone is the leading seller of residential intercoms, with about 56 percent of the market. Together, the merged firm would control about 87 percent of U.S. hard-wired residential intercom sales.To settle the FTC charges, Nortek agreed to divest M & S, its wholly-owned subsidiary and the second-largest seller of hard-wired residential intercoms in the United States.

The FTC charged that Fastline Publications, Inc., a Kentucky publisher, and Mid-America Equipment Retailers Association, an Indiana trade association representing farm equipment dealers harmed competition when the publisher entered into agreements with the dealers to ban price advertising for new equipment in an attempt not to disclose those dealers who offered discounted prices.  According to the FTC, the agreements reduced competition among farm equipment dealers and deprived consumers of truthful and nondeceptive price information. The agreement to settle the charges prohibited Fastline and Mid-America from restricting the advertising of prices for farm equipment in the future.

Global Industrial Technologies, Inc. agreed to restructure its proposed acquisition of AP Green Industries, Inc. to resolve FTC allegations that the merger would likely substantially reduce competition by combining the two largest domestic producers of glass-furnace silica refractories in the United States. Under the terms of a settlement, Global divested AP Green’s silica refractories business to a Commission-approved buyer.

The FTC charged that Stone Container Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer of linerboard, violated the antitrust laws by attempting to orchestrate an industry-wide price increase. According to the FTC, in both private conversations and public statements the executives of Stone Container signaled their intention to take mill downtime and reduce industry-wide inventories and their belief that doing so would build support for a price increase. According to the FTC complaint, the actions and statements constituted an invitation by Stone to its competitors to join a coordinated price increase. If accepted, the invitation would result in higher prices, reduced output and consumer injury, the complaint alleges.The FTC alleged that, following a failed attempt to increase the price it charged for linerboard in 1993, Stone Container temporarily shut down production at its own mills and bought up competitors' excess inventory as part of an intentional effort to build industry support for a price increase. The agreement to settle the FTC charges bars Stone Container from urging any competitor to raise or fix the price charged for linerboard.

Insilco agreed to divest two aluminum tube mills acquired in its acquisition of Helima-Helvetion International, Inc. to settle antitrust concerns that the acquisition would substantially reduce competition in the markets for welded-seam aluminum radiator and charged air cooler tubing in North America.

Consent order settles charges that the acquisition of Metal Leve S.A. would result in Mahle becoming a monopolist in the research, development, manufacture and sale of articulated pistons used in heavy duty diesel engines and requires divestiture of Metal Leve's U.S. piston business within 10 days of the final consent order.

Consent order preserves competition in the production and sale of certain refractory products and hot surface igniters. The order permits the acquisition of The Carborundum Company but requires divestiture of Carborundum's Monofrax fused cast refractories business in New York, its hot surface igniter business in Puerto Rico, and its silicon carbide refractories business in New Jersey to Commission approved acquirers.