Effect of a adjustment and integration of worldwide uranium industries

The industries that verified faithfully the relation of price drop to market integration as uranium industry did in the past 10 years are few. For example, the number of production enterprises in USA decreased from 16 in 1988 to only 6 in 1993. The spot price of natural uranium fell from 17 dollars to 7 dollars per lb in the same period. The yearly production in USA lowered from 5384 tU to 1154 tU. As years passed, the state that small number of the production enterprises took more proportion became conspicuous. It is doubtless that the supply from the former USSR disturbed the market, but it did not exert the effect to slow down the adjustment and integration of the market. It became clear that only 3 enterprises of the former USSR can survive as the suppliers of uranium in future. The adjustment and integration were carried out through the contracts of share acquisition, merger, selling and others. The installed production capacity in the world is 67,305 tU, but the production in 1993 was 32,114 tU, 48%. The capacity of low cost production facilities, the amount of uranium resources being estimated at 3.077 million tU, and the power of controlling uranium industries of respective major enterprises are discussed. (K.I.)