Daicel Chemical Industries Ltd. and Nippon Synthetic Chemical Industry Co. said Tuesday they will pay a combined $23.2 million as part of an out-of-court settlement of a U.S. antitrust lawsuit launched against them over their sales of sorbic acid.

Daicel will pay $16 million and Nippon Synthetic will pay $7.2 million to U.S. food firms that accused them of price-fixing, the two firms said in separate statements.

Daicel and Nippon Synthetic violated U.S. antitrust laws by manipulating the prices of sorbates to maintain their shares in the U.S. market, according to the plaintiffs. Sorbates are chemical preservatives used primarily in high-moisture and high-sugar foods such as cheese and baked goods.

This is the second out-of-court settlement the two chemical firms have made in the antitrust case.

In March 2000, Daicel and Nippon Synthetic paid a combined $39.7 million to settle a class-action suit filed by a group of U.S. food companies over the same issue. The latest case involves plaintiffs who left the class-action suit to press for higher damages.

In October 1999, a group of U.S. food companies filed a class action in San Francisco against a number of foreign chemical firms, including Daicel and Nippon Synthetic.

Nippon Synthetic said the payment will be booked as an extraordinary loss for the current year, leading to consolidated net losses of 950 million yen; it previously projected losses of 400 million yen.

Daicel also said it will book the payment as an extraordinary loss for the current fiscal year, although its earnings projection will remain unchanged.