EU probes Scania, Volvo and MAN for cartel suspicions

Europe's competition watchdog launched surprise inspections at several trucking companies on Tuesday over suspicions they may have formed an illegal cartel.

European Commission inspectors on Tuesday raided the premises of container liner shipping firms in several EU states, including Denmark and Germany, as part of a probe into a possible cartel.As Copenhagen-based Danish shipping giant and oil group A.P. Moeller-Maersk announced a raid at its premises, the European Union executive confirmed inspections "in several member states."The Commission confirms unannounced inspections in the container liner shipping sector" on Tuesday, it said in a statement.

Germany's competition watchdog said on Wednesday it had launched a probe against five major petrol-station groups -- BP/Aral, Esso, Jet, Shell and Total -- into alleged price-fixing.Confirming a report in the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the federal cartel office said it is investigating reports the five companies systematically sold petrol below the purchasing price at a number of petrol stations in order to drive independent filling stations out of business.

Swedish truck makers Volvo and Scania are bracing for the possibility of another economic recession, and say they are better prepare than three years ago.

I try to find global economic data on manufacturing and manufacturing jobs, but it isn’t easy. This is one of the areas I will be working on with the time I have freed up by moving to Malaysia (and taking a “sabbatical” [it isn't really a sabbatical, I guess, just me studying and working on what I want to instead of what someone pays me to]).

On June 1, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said "Italy should dump the euro unless the European Central Bank agreed to inject more cash into the economy". One day later Berlusconi said the idea Italy should dump euro was a "joke".