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Belgium:EU see ''red'' in De Beers-Alrosa deal |
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2004-11-10
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In wake of diamond giants De Beers and Alrosa joining hands over their multibillion-dollar diamond sales deal, The European Commission said Monday, it was examining antitrust proposals filed last week by EU regulators.
European Union investigators have warned the 2001 deal would eliminate De Beers'' biggest competitor, Russian state-owned Alrosa. Under the 2001 deal, Alrosa sells half its production to De Beers.
The EU has proposed the two groups limit the number of gems they trade under that pact.
"Last week, they made proposals to resolving the concerns," said EU spokeswoman Amelia Torres. She refused to comment on whether the EU was satisfied, saying only that the next step was to confer with other diamond producers and marketers.
Alrosa is Russia''s only diamond mining company and the world''s second largest rough diamond producer, which will sell US$4 billion (euro3 billion) in diamonds to De Beers over a five-year period, equivalent to half its annual production after De Beers, an Ango-South African concern under the deal.
While the EU antitrust regulators opined that the deal would restrict fair competition by shutting out any other potential players in the Russian diamond industry, the other parts of the world diamond industry - in Angola, Australia and Canada - were "very fragmented."
Currently, De Beers hold 60percent market share in supply of world’s rough diamond and produces 43 percent of world output. |
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