Cement sector cooperation managing competition law constraints

An interview on FT.com (11 Sept 09) with Bruno Lafont, Chief Executive of Lafarge, the French building materials group, highlights what is being achieved by cooperation within the cement production sector.

Asked about the Copenhagen Summit he said: “It is very important that the world together understands what the challenges are. And we should aim to eliminate the risks created by climate change, which are very serious for our children and for the children of our children. There is a need for strong cooperation but [also] an agreement on the goal and how to share the pain, because there will be a cost.”

“Business first should understand the goal and take its share of the goal. For example, the cement business, which has a strong ecological footprint, has taken some actions. We have created cement sustainable initiatives where 30 cement groups are working together at fixing goals, committing to actions, CO2 reductions, improvements in their governance and on their ecological footprint. So that means the sector has started to regulate itself.”

For more information on the Cement Sustainability Initiative visit http://www.wbcsdcement.org/

Significantly the initiative has carefully managed competition law issues:
“Request GNR system data… The PMC will review all requests to determine, first, if the data is available, and second, if responses to the query would fall within the limits of confidentiality and anti-trust constraints adopted for this system.”
Source: http://www.wbcsdcement.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=66&Itemid=133

“Data Confidentiality …PricewaterhouseCoopers also provides a guarantee of non-disclosure of confidential information and compliance with competition law.”
Source: http://www.wbcsdcement.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=65&Itemid=132

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