Press Release: Mergers: Commission clears proposed acquisition of Cumerio by Norddeutsche Affinerie

The European Commission approved under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of sole control of Cumerio SA of Belgium by Norddeutsche Affinerie AG (NA) of Germany. Both companies are active at several stages of the copper processing chain, in particular producing copper cathodes, copper rod and copper shapes. In September 2007 the Commission opened an in-depth investigation to check whether the proposed acquisition might significantly impede competition, in particular with regard to the European market for copper shapes (see IP/07/1354). Copper shapes are formats cast from pure copper, which are called cakes when they have a rectangular section and billets when they have a circular section. However, the in-depth inquiry showed that factors such as overcapacity on the market, very substantial in-house production of shapes by other firms, ease of entry and competition on the downstream markets of semi-finished copper products made it unlikely that the transaction would have harmful effects on consumers. The Commission therefore concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition within the European Economic Area (EEA) or a significant part of it.