The UK cement trade has been threatened with being 'broken open' after the Competition Commission (CC) said the leading firms had focused on maintaining market share, not customers.
The Competition Commission has provisionally concluded that coordination between the major cement producers, Lafarge Tarmac, Cemex and Hanson, in the cement market is likely to be resulting in higher prices for all cement users.
The commission has warned that the companies may be forced to sell parts of their businesses to give consumers more bargaining power.
Professor Martin Cave, CC deputy chairman and chairman of the inquiry group, said: "Given the extent of the problems we have found, we feel that hard-hitting measures may be necessary to open up the cement market to greater competition by transforming existing structures and behaviour.
"The fundamental importance of this product to construction and building and the amount of such work that is funded by the public purse only underlines the need for these actions.
"Our initial assessment is that these problems could have cost GB consumers around £180 million over the period 2007 to 2011, and we also believe this could be an underestimate."
Lafarge said they disagreed with the CC's findings and that they would make strong representations during the next phase of the process, while the owner of Hanson, HeidelbergCement said it was co-operating with the CC and Cemex said it thought the possible remedies were 'disproportionate'.
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