Karel Van Miert, the European Union's top competition law official said the long-running probe into allegation of price fixing and cartelisation against ABB was coming to a close and indicated that investigations may result in a fine.

"There will be a fine, that's for sure," Miert said in Brussels while reviewing the progress in the investigations. ABB's Denmark-based insulated steel pipe business is accused of orchestrating a cartel for almost 10 years between 1980 and 1989.

There was, however, no immediate comment from ABB on its plans for the EC, the executive arm of the 15-member union. Although the amount of fine will not be determined until later this month, EC officials reckon that it is likely to be quite high in accordance with guidelines that could possibily set a record for suchpenalties.

Miert also disclosed that there had been cooperation with some of the companies under investigation and indicated that a few of the companies were more cooperative than others. Fines for serious violations of EU's anti-competition law usually start at 20 million European currency Units (ECU) or about US$ 24 million.

The fines are adjusted upward according to the duration and aggravation while they move down for mitigating factors such as cooperation during investigations.

Insulated steel pipes linked to power plants are used to provide heating in houses and offices in Scandinavian region.

The commission promoted this system as an environment friendly form of air conditioning-cum-heating.

The EU had imposed fines on a shipping consortium while accusing it of cartelisation over a long period. The fines had ranged from seven million ECUs for the smallest companies to almost 30 million ECUs for the largest.

The total penalties were in the region of 273 million ECUs and the affectedcompanies are currently on appeal.

In January, top car-maker Volkswagen was fined 102 million ECUs for allegedly preventing customers from buying its cars across national borders for several years. The German auto giant is also appealing against the fine.