{"id":850950,"date":"2026-02-13T13:07:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T11:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=850950"},"modified":"2026-02-13T13:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T11:07:09","slug":"four-steel-companies-raided-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/850950\/four-steel-companies-raided-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Four steel companies raided in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Competition Commission has launched raids on four steel production companies in South Africa, conducting search-and-seizure operations on suspicion of price fixing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The commission raided the premises of the four scrap metal purchasing companies operating in Germiston, Nigel, Vanderbijlpark, and Hammanskraal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The companies under investigation operate as buyers of shredded or processed scrap metals, which they use to produce long steel products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The commission has reasonable grounds to suspect that the companies have engaged in fixing the purchase price of shredded or processed scrap metal,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It is alleged that these firms have made price adjustment announcements of the same amount for implementation at more or less the same time.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This conduct may amount to fixing of prices and\/or trading conditions in contravention of section 4(1)(b)(i) of the Competition Act 89 of 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Commissioner Doris Tshepe said that scrap metal forms part of the industrial intermediary products, which is a priority sector for the commission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Dismantling any alleged price-fixing cartel in the market will go a long way towards eliminating any existing artificial barriers to entry and create a conducive environment for all firms,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is particularly for small businesses and firms owned by historically disadvantaged persons, helping them to enter and participate in the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The companies include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Scaw South Africa (Pty) Ltd<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cape Gate (Pty) Ltd<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Shaurya Steel (Pty) Ltd trading as Force Steels <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Unica Iron and Steel (Pty) Ltd <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The commission said that the search and seizure operations are being conducted as part of an ongoing investigation of a complaint lodged by a third party in 2023 and a complaint initiated by the commissioner in February 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;During the search, the commission will seize documents and electronic data, which will be analysed together with other information gathered to determine whether these companies have contravened the Act,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In terms of section 48 of the Act, the Commission is authorised to enter and search premises and seize documents that have a bearing on its investigation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The commission noted that it has obtained a search warrant from the North Gauteng High Court authorising it to enter the premises of these companies and to seize information bearing on the investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The search and seizure operation is conducted with due regard to the rights of all affected persons,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Competition Commission has launched raids on four scrap metal companies in South Africa, conducting search-and-seizure operations on suspicion of price fixing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":850951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-850950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850950"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":850952,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850950\/revisions\/850952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}