No L 20/10 ) Official Journal of the European Communities 28.1.93 COMMISSION DECISION of 21 December 1992 relating to a proceeding pursuant to Article 85 of the EEC Treaty  (IV/33.031 — Fiat/Hitachi) i (Only the English and Italian texts are authentic) (93/48/EEC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, Having regard to Council Regulation No 17 of 6 February 1962, First Regulation implementing Articles 85 and 86 of the Treaty (*), as last amended by the Act of Accession of Spain and Portugal, and in particular Article 6 and 8 thereof, Having regard to the notification and application for negative clearance submitted on 23 December 1988 by Fiat Geotech Technolgie per la Terra SpA and Hitachi Construction Machinery Ltd concerning a joint venture, as well as the amendment thereto submitted on 12 June 1992, Having regard to the summary of the notification published (?) pursuant to Article 19 (3) of Regulation No 17, After consulting the Advisory Committee on Restrictive Practices and Dominant Positions, Whereas: 1. THE FACTS (), On 23 December 1988 the Commission was requested to give negative clearance for, or, alter- natively, to exempt pursuant to Article 85 (3), a joint venture for the manufacture, distribution and sale of hydraulic excavators-and related products. The parties (2) * 'The notifying parties are Fiat Geotech Tecnologie per la Terra SpA (Fiat) and Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. Ltd (Hitachi). Fiat is a subsidiary of Fiat SpA of Turin. Hitachi is a subsidiary of Hitachi Limited of Japan. ‘ () JO No 13, 21. 2. 1962, p. 204/62. () JO No C 206, 7. 8. 1991, p. 3. ) *® () © The product and market The principal product involved is hydraulic exca- vators of between 10,5 and 45 tonnes. These are medium to large excavators used mainly in road construction, large public works contracts and in mines and quarries. Such excavators form part of the wider earth- moving machinery market which includes six other types of equipment (wheel loaders, crawler loaders, backhoe loaders, dozers, graders and scrapers). They are sold throughout the world, and although there are local markets, the more important customers which, however, represent only 10% of the market, are international contracting firms that may buy anywhere in the world for use anywhere in the world. After the worldwide recession in the early 1980s, when there was a drop in demand of about 35 %, the earthmoving machinery market seems to be on a slight rise or, at least, to have stabilized. Market changes have, however, influenced the structure of producers operating throughout the sector, which means that some companies have left the sector, joint ventures and mergers have been entered into to cope with new market conditions, certain plants of companies still in business following the setting up of joint ventures have been closed down and some producers have acquired plants abroad in order to be present directly in strategic markets. Within the Community the 8 largest manufac- turers have 72 % of the market; the market leader has about 18 %. Fiat is in fifth place while Hitachi is not a full-line producer present in all product lines. Analysis of the earthmoving machinery market structure shows up separate subsectors which have, to some extent, developed differently over recent years. As regards the hydraulic excavator subsector in particular, it has grown as a percentage of machines produced in the entire sector. Although the number of units sold show a decline, the sales of such excavators have held up relatively well compared with the sales of other types of earth- moving machinery.