The sector has an annul volume of hundreds of millions of shekels. Contractors say they are forced to buy tiles in the Territories due to price fixing.
Restraint of Trade Commissioner Yoram Turbovitz has launched an investigation on suspicion of a cartel in the building tiles industry. This emerges from announcements today) Wednesday) by the I. Zehavi and Atzmon Tiling and Marble companies, to the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange and the Securities Authority.
The investigation was initiated as a result of the focused attention Turbovitz has been paying in recent months to the construction inputs industry. In this framework, he has so far examined arrangements relating to the transportation of cement, construction iron and electric wires. The investigation, encompassing a large number of companies, is in the initial stages.
Some 50 companies operate in the building floor-tiles sector, which has a turnover of hundreds of millions of shekels annually. I. Zehavi’s sales amounted in the first nine months of 1996 to NIS 66 million, reaching NIS 82 million for the whole of 1995. Atzmon’s sales amounted to NIS 63.5 million in January-September, and NIS 73 million for the whole of 1995.
Building contractors have complained for a long time of a suspected cartel in the floor tiling industry and in the bathroom fixtures sector, in which the floor tiling companies are also active. The contractors say the high prices generated by price fixing, force them to purchase much cheaper tiles in transactions in the Territories. These foreign-manufactured tiles, however, do not meet the Israeli standard.