The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission issued its final determination today, conditionally authorising a fly ash supply agreement between Pozzolanic Enterprises Pty Ltd, Stanwell Corporation Limited and Tarong North Pty Ltd, until 1 March 2014.
Fly ash is produced by power stations when they burn coal. It can be used as a cost effective partial substitute for cement in concrete.
Pozzolanic sought authorisation, that is, protection for conduct that might otherwise raise concerns under the competition provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, for an agreement that would provide Pozzolanic first right of access to the majority of fly ash produced at Tarong and Tarong North Power Stations in south-east Queensland.
Broadly, the ACCC may grant an authorisation when it is satisfied that the public benefit from the conduct outweighs any public detriment.
‘The ACCC considered the agreement put before it by Pozzolanic was unnecessarily restrictive. However conditional authorisation, requiring changes to the fly ash agreement to bring about greater certainty in relation to third party access to fly ash at the power stations, is appropriate’ ACCC Chairman Graeme Samuel said.
Key conditions of the authorisation include an upper limit on the amount of fly ash that Pozzolanic can take from each of Tarong and Tarong North Power Stations and reporting conditions, by Pozzolanic, to the ACCC.
On 29 March 2011 the ACCC issued a draft determination, proposing to deny authorisation as it was not satisfied that the proposed conduct was likely to result in any significant benefit to the public or that the public benefits flowing from the proposed arrangements were likely to outweigh the public detriments of the conduct.
The ACCC sought submissions on its draft determination and hosted a pre-decision conference on 12 May 2011, where a number of interested parties put forward their views.