Brussels, 16/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday the European Commission will issue sanctions against two cartels, once in food additives and the other in graphite.
In the first case, the Commission will fine Japan's Ajinomoto Co Inc, Takeda Chemical Industries and South Korea's Daesang Corp and Cheil Jedang Corp for an agreement over nucleotides (used in the food industry) used in flavour enhancers.
The second case concerns graphite used in the fabrication of IT chips and involves eight companies, four from Europe (including Germany's SGL), three Japanese (including Nippon Steel Chemical) and one from the US.
The Commission will also give its decision on the join buy-up of the Germany gas supplier Gasversorgung Süddeutschland (GVS) by Energie Baden Württemberg (EnBW) (which is controlled by EDF) and Italy's Eni, and Crédit Agricole's bid for Crédit Lyonnais (see today's European Interpenetration, p 18).