South Korea’s antitrust watchdog said Thursday that it has fined five major builders a combined 25.1 billion won ($23.8 million) for colluding in the bidding process for a construction project at a port in the southeastern part of the country.

The five ― Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co., POSCO Engineering and Construction Co., Daelim Industrial Co., SK Engineering & Construction Co. and Hyundai Development Co. ― were accused of secretly having meetings and telephone conversations to fix bidding prices for the project to build facilities around the Youngilman port in Pohang.

The bidding was held in February 2009 and SK E&C was chosen to lead the project later in that year. (Yonhap)