On September 3, some people reported that the Conch Cement Plant in Shimen County, Changde City, Hunan Province, had long monopolized the market by means of low-price dumping and price manipulation. The details are as follows:
Respected leaders
of the supervision department: Today, I would like to reflect an imminent problem to you: Shimen County Conch Cement Plant (hereinafter referred to as "Shimen Conch") has long monopolized the market by means of dumping at low prices and manipulating prices, which has driven its peers to a dead end and even harmed the common people. The specific questions are as follows:
First, what did they do?
"Loss-making business" to suppress peers: Shimen Conch, relying on the early low price of the mine resources, is now mainly selling stone seeds and stone powder for construction. They deliberately pushed the price to a ridiculous level: stone seeds are only sold at 24 yuan/ton (the market price is about 40-50 yuan); stone powder is as low as 7 yuan/ton (others sell 35 yuan). This is done in order to roll up small factories to death-when their peers go bankrupt, they will immediately raise prices and make monopoly profits. Pricing
based on what people put on the table: In places like Shihmen and Cili, they pick areas where there are many competitors and suddenly cut prices, or even sell at a loss; they sell at a high price in places where there is no competition. This "price war" is not a market behavior at all, but a pure crushing of small enterprises with capital.
Stuck mining resources: They control a large number of mines, their own production with low-cost raw materials, but cut off the supply of aggregates to their peers, forcing small factories "no rice in the pot.".
2. What harm has been caused?
Small factories close down and workers lose their jobs: In recent years, due to the price strategy of Shimen Conch, many building materials factories in surrounding cities and counties have closed down and workers have lost their jobs. The loss of government tax sources has made it difficult for many families to make a living.
Traffic is paralyzed and accidents are frequent: because the price is too low, truck drivers rush to the factory area to grab goods. It is normal to wait in line for more than 24 hours, resulting in frequent congestion on the road outside the factory, and ambulances can not get through; drivers are tired driving, which brings great potential traffic safety hazards. The price of
materials is like a roller coaster. Today, the price of aggregate is 7 yuan, and it will rise to 30 yuan next month. The budget of the construction site is in a mess. The contractor and the migrant workers argue about the settlement every day. The cost of some projects is out of control. They use inferior materials to make up the number. The problems of house cracking and road settlement occur frequently. At the same time, the collapse of enterprises has sharply reduced government tax revenue, expanded the number of unemployed groups, further transmitted the downstream consumer market, shrunk the national economy, and affected social stability.
3. Why are they suspected of breaking the law?
According to the national law, Shimen Conch has stepped on at least three red lines: Article 11 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law: selling below the cost price for a long time; Article 14 of the Price Law: manipulating market prices and disrupting market order; and the Mineral Resources Law: monopolizing mine resources and hindering fair competition.
Four, we implore the relevant departments to take action!
Find out their true costs and expose evidence of dumping at low prices. Set a "red line"
for the price of building materials: for key materials such as stone seeds and stone powder, set a minimum protection price (for example, stone powder is not less than 20 yuan/ton) to prevent malicious price reduction and crazy involution.
Open mine resources: fair distribution of mine resources, so that small and medium-sized enterprises can also buy affordable raw materials.
Strictly check the quality of products, eliminate the "tofu dregs" project, rationally plan traffic routes, and avoid road paralysis.
Finally, I would like to say something from the bottom of my heart: the behavior of Shimen Conch, on the surface, is to "benefit the people at a low price", but in fact, it is to exchange the collapse of the industry and social unrest for its own huge profits. If we don't rectify it, more families will lose their jobs and more projects will have accidents! We implore the regulatory authorities to act decisively to save small and medium-sized enterprises and save the people's rice bowls!
On September 11, the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Shimen County replied as follows:
Dear citizens
, you reported that "Shimen Conch Co., Ltd. has been dumping at a low price for a long time and the price is unreasonable", and appealed to the relevant departments to intervene. It has been transferred to our Bureau for handling. Our Bureau attaches great importance to it and immediately conducts an investigation. Now we inform the relevant information as follows:
On the morning of September 8, 2025, our Bureau sent three administrative law enforcement officers to Shimen Conch Co., Ltd. to conduct an on-site investigation on the pricing of aggregate products such as stone seeds and stone powder.
The company actively cooperated in the inspection process and provided materials such as cost accounting list, sales contract, sales invoice and price change table in 2025. Materials show that from January to July this year, the average comprehensive sales price of such products was 14.21 yuan/ton. Among them, the ex-factory price of stone powder from January to August is between 11 yuan/ton and 15 yuan/ton, and no sales record of stone powder as low as 7 yuan/ton has been found in the investigation; the ex-factory price of stone seeds is between 20 yuan/ton and 24 yuan/ton, and your report that "stone seeds are sold at 24 yuan/ton" is true, but the price is not lower than enterprise's cost. The price of the above aggregate products does not include the transportation cost, which belongs to the price provided by the manufacturer.
According to the relevant provisions of the Price Law of the People's Republic of China and the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, up to now, no illegal act of "dumping at a price below cost" has been found in this verification.
This verification conclusion is based on the current evidence. If you have substantive evidence of the company's low-price dumping behavior in different periods, different batches of products or different customers (such as contracts, invoices, payment records that are significantly lower than its cost), you can contact our Bureau in time, and we will further verify and deal with it according to law.
Thank you for your concern and support for the work of our Bureau.
Hereby reply.
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