What do copper concentrate, container shipping and boxed juice have in common? In the eyes of Chinese regulators, a lot. Beijing’s antitrust authorities have flexed their muscles in all of these sectors. And the foreign companies involved, from Glencore to Maersk to Coca-Cola, came out the worse for it.
GE and Alstom will have to go through their own song and dance to win Chinese antitrust approval for their deal. China’s seven-year-old regulator is growing more assertive. And GE/Alstom resembles previous deals that it has restricted or rejected: they operate in sectors where homegrown companies are trying to win market share from – and master the technology of – their foreign competitors.
China is a big market for both GE and Alstom. GE’s revenues there were over $5bn last year. Alstom’s revenues from the Asia-Pacific region were more than $4bn. And there is some overlap in China: both sell gas turbines and steam turbines there. China is Alstom’s second-biggest turbine customer, while GE has sold 270 gas turbines and 70 steam turbines to the country.