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25 Antitrust Bull. 233 (1980)
Market Coordination by the Uranium Oxide Industry

handle is hein.journals/antibull25 and id is 251 raw text is: The Antitrust Bulletin/Spring 1980 Market coordination by the uranium oxide industry BY GEOFFREY ROTHWELL* By 1970 the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) had ended its price guarantee program for domestically produced ura- nium oxide (U3O8), or yellowcake. Given that the AEC had been the sole purchaser in the U.S. market until the late 1960's, the price remained constant at approximately $8 per pound from 1962-1968. Private purchase contracts, begun in 1966, were negotiated through the end of 1973 at prices averaging under $7 for immediate delivery. But during the next three years, the spot market price rose to $41, and has remained in the mid-$40 range since that time.' These rapid increases had led to several investigations of the possible collusive aspects of the uranium mining and milling industry, and prompts the present article. The international yellowcake market may be classified by at least two broadly defined submarkets. Although the United States dominates uranium production through its possession of a * Department of Economics, University of California at Berkeley. Although the spot price is in the mid-$40 range, the average price is much lower due to earlier fixed-price contracting. See U.S. Depart- ment of Energy, Survey of United States Uranium Marketing Activity, DOE/RA-0006 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Energy, May 1978), pp. 9-15. 'E 1980 by Federal Legal Publications, Inc.