South Korea’s FTC imposes $306 mln penalty for LNG bid fixing

South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission on Tuesday imposed a combined fine of 351.6 billion Korean won (US$306 million) to 13 construction companies for rigging the bid processes for LNG storage tank construction projects from 2005 to 2012. 

FTC informed in its notice that the 13 companies, including Hyundai Engineering & Construction, SK Construction, rigged bids for contracts on 12 LNG storage tanks totaling KRW3.23 trillion ($2.81 billion).

Other sanctioned companies are Keangnam Enterprises, Daelim Industrial, Daewoo E&C, Dong Ah Construction Industrial, Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, Sambu Construction, Samsung C&T, GS E&C, Posco E&C, Hanyang E&C and Hanwha E&C.

According to the FTC’s finding, bidders predetermined bidding prices for each tender that ranged from KRW308.5 billion to KRW393.7 billion ($268.5 million to $342.7 million) for the initial tenders.

The latter bids were priced at KRW50 billion to KRW70 billion ($43.5 million to $60.9 million), Korean FTC said.

The watchdog added that the public bidding processes as well as other national projects will be monitored closely in order to eradicate similar cases.

1 KRW = 0.000870494 USD

LNG World News Staff