NGO, cement company face possible court battle

NGO, cement company face possible court battle

Arya Abhiseka, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Non-governmental organization Monopoly Watch, and Lubis,
Santosa and Maulana lawyers could end up in a civil lawsuit over
the former's refusal to retract its report of complaint to the
Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) that four
foreign cement companies in Indonesia were operating as a cartel.

Lubis lawyers, which represents Cemex Indonesia, had earlier
petitioned Monopoly Watch to withdraw its complaint and to make a
public apology for defamation or face a lawsuit.

However, Monopoly Watch persisted with its report to the
commission, saying it was ready to meet Lubis in court.

Meanwhile, according to executive of the commission M. Nawir
Messi, KPPU ruled out a possible investigation, saying that the
report lacked evidence. However, it was put on the commission's
watchlist.

Monopoly Watch filed the report with the commission, alleging
possible cartel-like operations by the four foreign cement
companies: Mexico's Cemex SA de CV, Heidelberger of Germany,
Holcim of Switzerland and Lafarge of France.

"We have every right to report any violation of fair business
competition law to the commission," said secretary of the
Monopoly Watch executive committee Samuel Nitisaputra.

He insisted that the report was only a basis for the
commission to study and thus carry out an investigation into
allegations of cartel-like practices.

In a cartel, a group of businesses controls prices by
regulating the production and marketing of a product.

Today, Cemex Indonesia owns over 35 percent of publicly listed
PT Semen Gresik, a cement group based in Surabaya with a capacity
of 17.3 million metric tons.

Hidelberger controls PT Indocement in Jakarta, with a total
capacity of 15.7 million tons, Holcim controls PT Semen Cibinong
(9.6 million tons) and Lafarge owns PT Semen Andalas in Aceh (2.6
million tons).