CELEX: 31972D0093
Language: en
Date: 1972-01-21 00:00:00
Title: Commission Decision of 21 January 1972 on the authorization of special Deutsche Bundesbahn tariffs for the carriage of combustible solids from Ahlen (Westphalia) to Alsdorf (Kreis Aachen)

58                                  Official Journal of the European Communities
 No L 33 / 16                        Official Journal of the European Communities                                7.2.72
                                              COMMISSION DECISION
                                                  of 21 January 1972
              on the authorization of special Deutsche Bundesbahn tariffs for the carriage of com­
                         bustible solids from Ahlen (Westphalia) to Alsdorf (Kreis Aachen)
                                           (Only the German text is authentic)
                                                     (72/93 /ECSC)
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN                                 normal measures of rationalization and moderniza­
COMMUNITIES,                                                   tion, that is to say by measures of substantial new
                                                               investment, is not foreseen for the immediate future;
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the Euro­
pean Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), and in                   Whereas coal from the Aachen coalfield and from
particular Articles 2 to 5 and 70 thereof;                     Kempenland is prepared for coking in the mixer
                                                               owned by the Eschweiler Bergwerks-Verein at Als­
Having regard to the verbal note of 19 August 1970             dorf; whereas Eschweiler Bergwerks-Verein at pre­
from the Permanent Representative of the Federal               sent delivers about 270 000 metric tons of coal from
Republic of Germany to the European Communities                the Aachen coalfield to the mixer of Kempense
by which the German Government, in accordance                  Steenkolenmijnen NV at Zolder, for the same pur­
with the provision of the fourth paragraph of Article          pose; whereas, for the past three years, this two-way
70 of the ECSC Treaty, requested the Commission of             exchange of equal quantities has been steadily in­
the European Communities to authorize the special              creasing in volume; whereas for the year 1972 the
tariff which the Deutsche Bundesbahn propose to ap­            two sides have agreed to exchange 300 000 metric
ply to the carriage of coal from Ahlen (Westphalia)            tons; whereas the cost of carriage of coal from Bel­
to Alsdorf (Kreis Aachen);                                     gium and from the Aachen coalfield on the Alsdorf/
                                                               Zolder route is Bfrs 76-60/DM 5-60 under interna­
1 . Whereas the Anna coking plant in Alsdorf, which            tional tariff No 1232, which is competitive with other
belongs to the Eschweiler Bergwerks-Verein, a sub­             modes of transport;
sidiary of the ARBED group, at present receives sup­
plies of coking coal from:                                     Whereas carriage of coking coal from Ahlen (West­
- the coalfield adjoining the Kempenland (Campine)             phalia) to Alsdorf is at present effected exclusively
   district of Belgium ( 1971 - an estimated 270 000           by rail ; whereas the Deutsche Bundesbahn applies,
    metric tons);                                              in accordance with general tariff Nos 180 and 206, a
- the collieries which the Eschweiler Bergwerks-               rate of DM 14-10/metric ton ; whereas it proposes to
    Verein owns in the Aachen coalfield ( 1971 ) - an          introduce a , special tariff bringing this rate down to
    estimated 2-1 million metric tons) ;                       DM 11-60/metric ton; whereas the Federal Govern­
                                                               ment has requested authorization for this tariff;
- the Erin mine owned by the Eschweiler Bergwerks-
    Verein at Castrop-Rauxel (Westphalia) ( 1971 - an          2 . Whereas the application, the additional informa­
    estimated 164 000 metric tons) ;
                                                               tion provided at the meetings of 21 September 1970
- the Westfalen mine owned by the Eschweiler                   and 2 June 1971 between representatives of the Com­
    Bergwerks-Verein at Ahlen ( 1971 - an estimated            mission of the European Communities and of the
    270 000 metric tons) ;                                     German Government, and the information contained
                                                               in the verbal note of 16 April 1971 , indicate that the
Whereas the Anna coking plant and the collieries               German Government puts forward the particular
owned by the Eschweiler Bergwerks-Verein are not               economic interests of the Deutsche Bundesbahn in
independent but are divisions of that undertaking;             support of the special tariff; whereas on this matter
                                                               the German Government declares as follows :
Whereas these various sources of supply enable the
Anna coking plant to work to full capacity; whereas            If the Anna coking plant used only coal from the
an increase in production obtained otherwise than by           Aachen coalfield and from Kempenland - which it
 ---pagebreak---                                    Official Journal of the European Communities                                      59
could well do - its production costs would, because          the special tariffs are justified specifically by the
of lower costs of carriage, be less than the production      conditions of the transport market ; whereas the in­
costs resulting from the present coking coal intake           terest of a carrier in applying a special tariff in order
involving, use of coal from the Westfalen mine if             to retain certain traffic must, however, be disre­
carried at normal tariff rates. The lowering of the          garded, if the proper functioning of the common
rate to DM 11-60 would not however enable total               market in coal and steel, as laid down in the ECSC
parity to be achieved between production costs for            Treaty, so requires.
the different intake combinations. The production of
coke from dearer a mix including coal from the West­          Whereas the special tariff falls under the fourth para­
falen mine would remain somewhat dearer, although            graph of Article 70 of the ECSC Treaty, because
the difference in cost would be so light as no longer         owing to its limited field of application it is of mate^
to exclude the continued use of coal from that mine          rial benefit only to the Eschweiler Bergwerks-Verein,
for the Anna plant on a long-term basis. Moreover,            that is to say, to a particular undertaking of the coal,
the special tariff would enable the cost of carriage of      iron and steel industry; whereas the advantage de­
coal from the two production centres of the Esch­            rived by the Eschweiler Bergwerks-Verein from the
weiler Bergwerks-Verein in Westphalia (Erin and               operation does not lie so much in the actual reduction
Westfalen) to be approximated, and would give the             in the cost of carriage of coal from Westphalia;
coking plant greater flexibility of supply. If the spe­       whereas the main positive effect of the tariff for the
cial tariff is not authorized, the Eschweiler Berg­          Eschweiler Bergwerks-Verein is that it enables that
werks-Verein intends to stop supplying the Anna              undertaking to obtain optimum internal conditions
coking plant with Ahlen coal which would be re­               of purchase and sale in line with the long-term policy
placed by coal from the Aachen coalfield with the             of the undertaking.
result that the latter would cease deliveries of coal
to Zolders. The obligations under the exchange con­          Whereas the interest which the special tariff holds
tract concluded with Kempense Steenkolenmijnen               for the Deutsche Bundesbahn cannot be contested;
NV would be fulfilled with the Ahlen coal from the            whereas, given these circumstances, the Eschweiler
Westfalen mine released by this change.                       Bergwerks-Verein would in fact have to make its
                                                              decision to continue supplying coal from the West­
Carriage of the latter quantities of coal to Zolder           falen mine depends on some DM 2-50 difference be­
would very probably be effected by inland waterway            tween the normal tariff and the special tariff re­
and, according to the offers made to the Eschweiler           quested; whereas it seems equally incontestable that
Bergwerks-Verein, the cost of carriage would then             in such circumstances the Eschweiler Bergwerks-
lie between DM 9 and DM 10/metric ton;                        Verein would be in a position to undertake the sup­
                                                              plying of the Anna coking plant, at present working
In these circumstances the Deutsche Bundesbahn                at full capacity, simply by increasing the proportion
aims, by applying the special tariffs, to continue to         of coal from the Aachen coalfield; whereas, on the
effect the carriage of coal from Ahlen to Alsdorf, an         other hand, such a readjustment would not neces­
operation which, in spite of the 18 % reduction on            sarily involve an increase in Belgian supplies ;
the normal tariff, would remain profitable for the
Deutsche Bundesbahn. What is involved is program­             Whereas if these intentions were carried out, the
med carriage under favourable operating conditions            Deutsche Bundesbahn would lose the not inconsider­
 (e.g. two-way traffic), by complete train loads with         able volume of traffic from Ahlen to Alsdorf, with
large capacity, self-unloading trucks . Receipts of DM        consequential reduction in receipts ; whereas , more­
 11-60/metric ton would more than cover costs. Non-           Over, it would no longer take part in the carriage of
authorization of the tariff would, on the other hand,         coal from Aachen to Zolder, which would be ter­
cause the Deutsche Bundesbahn to lose income in               minated ; whereas, in compensation for the loss of
excess of DM 4 million per year;                              traffic from Ahlen to Alsdorf the Deutsche Bundes­
                                                              bahn might, at best, acquire an equivalent traffic of
3. Whereas the fourth paragraph of Article 70 of the          coal from Ahlen to Zolder; whereas the income from
ECSC Treaty provides that the prior agreement of              that operation would correspond to a part of the pro­
the Commission is required for the application of             ceeds from the application of an international com­
special internal rates and conditions in the interest of      petitive tariff and would be less than that resulting
one or more coal- or steel-producing undertakings ;           from the application of the proposed special tariff;
whereas that provision relates not only to special
tariffs adopted in the interest of such undertakings          Whereas if, through application of the special tariff,
but to any special tariffs which, whatever the reason         the Deutsche Bundesbahn could retain the present
for their introduction, happen to be of advantage to          traffic, the operation would remain profitable for it
one or more of them; whereas the agreement of the             because of favourable costs ; whereas, if the various
Commission must be given if the special tariffs com­          courses open to the Deutsche Bundesbahn in the
ply with the principles of the Treaty; whereas such           matter are compared, the existence of the risk it is
compliance may as a general rule be presumed where            trying to counter by means of the special tariff and
 ---pagebreak--- 60                               Official Journal of the European Communities
of the advantage this measure holds for the Deutsche        Whereas, in these circumstances, the proposed tariff
Bundesbahn are indisputable;                                is compatible with the principles of the ECSC Treaty
                                                            and should therefore be authorized;
Whereas there is no need to fear that the introduc­
tion of the special tariff would impair the proper          Whereas the Commission reserves the right to review
functioning of the common market in coal and steel;         its decision on this matter at any time, if the grounds
                                                            on which the decision is based should change or no
Whereas the advantage of approximately DM 680 000           longer obtain ; whereas the measure and its authori­
per year which the special tariff would bring to the        zation should in any case be reviewed within three
Eschweiler Bergwerks-Verein does not disturb com­           years' time ; whereas consequently, this authorization
petition between Community coking coal producers;           should be of limited duration,
whereas the collieries of Westphalia and of the Aa­
chen coalfield are owned by the Eschweiler Berg­            HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION :
werks-Verein ; whereas those collieries are not inde­
pendent but are fully integrated divisions of that
undertaking; whereas the market expectations of                                     Article 1
other coal producers, in particular Kempense Steen­
kolenmijnen NV, are not affected ; whereas the Kem­         The application of a special tariff for the carriage of
penland collieries are indeed interested in expanding       coal from Ahlen (Westphalia) to Alsdorf (Kreis Aa­
their exchanges with Kempense Steenkolenmijnen;             chen) by the Deutsche Bundesbahn is authorized
                                                            until 31 December 1974 .
whereas up to the present the Eschweiler Bergwerks-
Verein has satisfied that interest by increasing its                                Article 2
purchases from year to year, notwithstanding the sup­
plies from Ahlen to the Anna coking plant ; whereas         If the Commission finds that this Decision is no
the introduction of the special tariff will not affect      longer justified, it shall be amended or repealed.
these exchanges, the volume of which is on the in­
crease ;                                                                            Article 3
Whereas , furthermore, the effective support that the       This Decision is addressed to the Federal Republic .
measure in question brings to the Eschweiler Berg­          of Germany.
werks-Verein in its capacity of coke producer does
not distort competition between other coke produ­           Done at Brussels, 21 January 1972.
cers ; whereas, indeed, even without a special tariff
that company, by obtaining coking coal from another                           For the Commission
combination of sources, would be in a position to
market the same amount of coke and at the same                                    The President
cost ;                                                                       Franco M. MALFATTI