(Yicai Global) July 11 -- China’s main market regulator has handed fines totaling CNY451 million (USD67 million) to 13 cement companies, including an affiliate of Jidong Cement, in the northwestern Shaanxi province for monopolistic behaviors.

Some of the penalized companies include a local arm of Anhui province-based Conch Cement, the State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement on July 9. The announcement failed to spur any major selloffs in the two above-mentioned firms' shares today.

Cement is a product susceptible to limited competitiveness. Relatively independent markets form as the general transporting distance of the construction material is a maximum of about 150 kilometers.

The case has taken a year to be concluded. A local arm of the SAMR initiated the investigation targeting the Shaanxi cement association, as well as the involved cement companies, in July 2019.

From July 2017 to March 2019, the 13 companies convened to negotiate their cement prices multiple times. Consequently, they hiked their prices at the same time to the same degree.

The 13 firms' violations have restricted fair competition in the cement market of Shaanxi province’s central Guanzhong region, per the SAMR. The companies have damaged their customers’ interests and the public interests of society, it added.

Editors: Liao Shumin, Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi