A monitoring conducted by “Okaz” revealed the presence of 3 cement companies listed in the stock market with its indices (TASI, Nomu) that were not recently included in the Competition Authority’s violations. Because of their agreement to raise prices.
According to the monitoring, the Eastern, Northern, and Tabuk cement companies were excluded from the recently announced list, which includes 14 companies.
The authority fined each violating company 10 million riyals (for a total fine of 140 million riyals), for its agreement to simultaneously raise cement prices. These companies included Al-Jouf, Al-Qassim, Saudi Arabia, Al-Yamamah, Al-Madina, Al-Arabiya, Yanbu, Najran, Umm Al-Qura, Hail, and the Southern companies. .
The fines included two companies that are not listed on the stock market (Al-Safwa and United Industrial).
Al-Jouf Cement Company commented on the penalties, by clarifying that these violations occurred in 2018, and the final decision was issued in this regard in 2022.
And she indicated that the financial impact due to the fine on the company does not exist during the current year 2023, because the financial impact of that violation was deducted by taking a retroactive provision on the 2021 lists.
It is noteworthy that cement companies achieved profits of 2.16 billion riyals in the past year 2022, and the profits included all companies.
Abdul Rahman Al-Misbahi (Jeddah) @ sobhe90
