United States v. Columbia Steel Company/Opinion of the Court

The United States brings this suit under § 4 of the Sherman Act to enjoin United States Steel Corporation and its subsidiaries from purchasing the assets of the largest independent steel fabricator on the West Coast on the ground that such acquisition would violate §§ 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act. The complaint, filed on February 24, 1947, charged that if the contract of sale between United States Steel and Consolidated Steel Corporation were carried out, competition in the sale of rolled steel products and in fabricated steel products would be restrained, and that the contract indicated an effort on the part of United States Steel to attempt to monopolize the market in fabricated steel products. After a trial before a single judge in the district court, judgment was entered in favor of the defendants, and the government brought the case here by direct appeal. 32 Stat. 823, 15 U.S.C. § 29, 15 U.S.C.A. § 29.

The underlying facts in the case are set forth in the findings of the trial court, and with a few exceptions those findings are not disputed by the government. We rely chiefly on the findings to indicate the nature of the commerce here in question and the extent to which competition would be affected by the challenged contract.

The steel production involved in this case may be spoken of as being divided into two stages: the production of rolled steel products and their fabrication into finished steel products. Rolled steel products consist of steel plates, shapes, sheets, bars, and other unfinished steel products and are in turn made from ingots by means of rolling mills. The steel fabrication involved herein may also be divided into structural fabrication and plate fabrication. Fabricated structural steel products consist of building framework, bridges, transmission towers, and similar permanent structures, and are made primarily from rolled steel shapes, although plates and other rolled steel products may also be employed. Fabricated plate products on the other hand, consist of pressure vessels, tanks, welded pipe, and similar products made principally from rolled steel plates, although shapes and bars are also occasionally used. Both plate and structural fabricated products are made to specifications for a particular purpose; fabricated products do not include standard products made by repetitive processes in the manufacture of general steel merchandise such as wire, nails, bolts, and window frames. The manufacture of such standardized finished products is not involved in this case. The facilities required for structural fabrication are quite different from those required for plate fabrication; the former require equipment for shearing, punching, drilling, assembling, and riveting or welding structural shapes where as the latter require equipment for bending, rolling, cutting, and forming the plates which go into the finished product.

The complaint lists four defendants: Columbia Steel Company, Consolidated Steel Corporation, United States Steel Corporation, and United States Steel Corporation of Delaware. United States Steel and its subsidiaries engage in the business of producing rolled steel products and in structural fabrication, but do no plate fabrication work. Consolidated Steel, the sale of whose assets the government seeks to enjoin, is engaged only in structural fabrication and plate fabrication. United States Steel with its subsidiaries is the largest producer of rolled steel products in the United States, with a total investment of more than a billion and a half dollars. During the ten-year period 1937 1946 United States Steel produced almost exactly a third of all rolled steel products produced in the United States, and average sales for that period were nearly a billion and a half dollars. In the five-year period 1937-1941, average sales were a little over a billion dollars. Consolidated, by contrast, had plants whose depreciated value was less than ten million dollars. During the five-year period 1937-1941, Consolidated had average sales of only twenty million dollars, and the United States Steel committee which negotiated the terms of the purchase of Consolidated estimated that Consolidated's sales in the future would run to twenty-two million dollars annually and agreed with Consolidated on a purchase price of slightly in excess of eight million dollars. During the war Consolidated produced over a billion and a half dollars worth of ships with government furnished facilities. Consolidated no longer possesses any facilities for building ships.

Columbia Steel, a wholly-owned subsidiary of United States Steel, has been the largest rolled steel producer in the Pacific Coast area since 1930, with plants in Utah and California, and has also served as selling agent for other rolled steel subsidiaries of United States Steel, and for two subsidiaries of that company engaged in structural fabrication, the American Bridge Company at Pittsburgh and the Virginia Bridge Company at Roanoke, Virginia, though neither it nor any other subsidiary of United States Steel in the Consolidated market area was a fabricator of any kind. National Tube Company, another United States Steel subsidiary, sells pipe and tubing. Consolidated has structural fabricating plants nea Los Angeles and at Orange, Texas, and plate fabricating facilities in California and Arizona. Consolidated has sold its products during the past ten years in eleven states, referred to hereafter as the Consolidated market: Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington. It is that market which the government views as significant in determining the extent of competition between United States Steel and Consolidated. It is not the usual Pacific and Mountain States groups employed by the Census. United States Steel Corporation of Delaware is a subsidiary of United States Steel which renders technical assistance to other subsidiaries engaged in steel production.

Rolled steel products have traditionally been sold on a basing point system. Prior to World War II rolled steel was sold on the West Coast at a price computed on the basis of eastern basing points, even though both United States Steel and Bethlehem Steel produced rolled steel products in California. Fabricators such as Consolidated thus did not get the full benefit of their proximity to the western market. The competitive disadvantages under which western fabricators worked is illustrated by the fact that United States Steel has been the largest seller of fabricated structural steel in the Consolidated market, even though it has not fabricating plants in the area. During the ten-year period ending in 1946, 100 different concerns bid successfully in competition with United States Steel for the sale of fabricated structural products in the Consolidated market; 50 of those concerns are located outside the area. United States Steel's principal competitor as measured on a national basis, Bethlehem Steel, does have fabricating facilities in California, however, and prior to World War II United States Steel had prepared plans for the erection of fabricating facilities in California. The war made it necessary to postpone the plans. This use of eastern basing points makes past figures on rolled steel products sales from producers in the Consolidated market unreliable in determining effective competition for the future sales of rolled steel in that market. United States Steel now uses Geneva as a basing point.

The urgent wartime demand for steel prompted the government to construct new rolled steel plants in the West. The largest of these plants was erected at Geneva, Utah, at a cost of nearly $200,000,000, and was designed, constructed, and operated by United States Steel for the account of the government. The plant had an annual capacity of more than 1,200,000 tons of ingots, which in turn could be employed to make 700,000 tons of plates and 250,000 tons of shapes. Another large plant was erected by the government a Fontana, California. This is now operated through arrangements of private parties with the government. In January 1945 United States Steel considered the acquisition of the Geneva plant, but because of the speculative nature of the venture and attacks by people within and without the government, United States Steel decided not to submit a bid and notified the Defense Plant Corporation to that effect on August 8, 1945. Shortly thereafter the Surplus Property Administrator wrote to Benjamin F. Fairless, President of United States Steel, advising him that a bid by United States Steel would be welcomed. On May, 1, 1946, United States Steel submitted a bid for the Geneva plant of $47,500,000. The terms of the bid provided that United States Steel would spend not less than $18,000,000 of its own funds to erect additional facilities at Geneva, and $25,000,000 to erect a cold-reduction mill at Pittsburg, California, to consume 386,000 tons of hot rolled coils produced at Geneva. The bid estimated that a sufficient market could be found to absorb an annual production ranging from 456,000 to 600,000 tons. The bid stipulated that Geneva products would be sold with Geneva as a basing point. This would offer possibilities for a reduction in the price of rolled steel products to West Coast purchasers and their customers. The variation between 456,000 and 600,000 tons depended on the consumption of rolled steel products by users other than United States Steel's new Pittsburg plant. The bid noted that additional steel consuming manufacturing plants might be located in the West which would provide a market for additional rolled steel products. Apart from the cold-reduction mill to be erected at Pittsburg, the bid was silent as to the acquisition of fabricating facilities by United States Steel to provide a market for Geneva products.

On May 23, 1946, the War Assets Administration announced that the bid of United States Steel was accepted. An accompanying memorandum discussed in detail the six bids which had been received, and concluded that United States Steel's bid was the most advantageous. The other bids were found unacceptable for a number of reasons; either the bidder could offer no assurance of his financial responsibility or his ability to operate the plant, or the price offered was too low, or the bidder requested the government to lend the bidder large sums for the erection of additional facilities or to erect such facilities at government expense. The memorandum noted that the successful bid would 'foster the development in the West of new independent enterprise' by encouraging the location of steel-consuming manufacturing plants in the western states.

On June 17, 1946, the Attorney General advised the War Assets Administration that the proposed sale did not in his opinion constitute a violation of the antitrust laws, and the sale was consummated two days thereafter. The opinion of the Attorney General was requested in accordance with § 20 of the Surplus Property Act of 1944, 58 Stat. 765, 775, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix § 1629, which requires such procedure when government plants costing more than $1,000,000 are being sold. That section provides that nothing in the Surplus Property Act 'shall impair, amend, or modify the antitrust laws or limit and prevent their application to persons' who buy property under the Act. The Attorney General noted that the ingot capacity of United States Steel had declined from 35.3% of the total national capacity in 1939 to 31.4% in 1946, and that if the Geneva plant were acquired, the percentage would be increased to 32.7%. Considering only the Pacific Coast and Mountain states, the acquisition of Geneva, the Attorney General said, would increase United States Steel's percentage of capacity in that area from 17.3% to 39%. United States Steel, however, estimated that on acquisition of Geneva it would have 51% of ingot capacity in the Pacific Coast area. On the basis of these figures construed in the light of United States v. Aluminum Co. of America, 2 Cir., 148 F.2d 416, and American Tobacco Co. v. United States, 328 U.S. 781, 66 S.Ct. 1125, 90 L.Ed. 1575, the Attorney General concluded that the proposed sale, as such, would not violate the antitrust laws. The letter added that no opinion was expressed as to the legality of any acts or practices in which United States Steel might have engaged or in which it might engage in the future. See for a comparable situation United States v. United States Steel Corporation, 251 U.S. 417, 446, 40 S.Ct. 293, 297, 64 L.Ed. 343, 8 A.L.R. 1121.

Prior to the sale of the Geneva plant, Alden G. Roach, President of Consolidated, approached Fairless of United States Steel and indicated that he would like to sell the business of Consolidated. Roach also had conversations with representatives of Bethlehem and Kaiser with regard to the same end. Roach mentioned the subject again to Fairless in February or March of 1946, and Fairless replied that United States Steel was restudying its decision not to bid on the Geneva plant, and did not want to discuss the purchase of Consolidated until the Geneva issue was decided. After the sale of Geneva was effected in June, Fairless spoke again with Roach and arranged to have a committee from United States Steel make an investigation of the Consolidated plants in August. The committee reported that it would cost $14,000,000 and take three years to construct plants equivalent to those owned by Consolidated, and that the Consolidated properties had a depreciated value of $9,800,000. After further negotiations the parties agreed on a price of approximately $8,250,000 and a purchase agreement was executed on December 14 according to which Columbia agreed to buy the physical assets of Consolidated and four subsidiaries. Fairless testified on the witness stand that United States Steel's purpose in purchasing Consolidated was to assure a market for plates and shapes produced at Geneva, and Roach testified that Consolidated's purpose was to withdraw the stockholders' equity from the fabrication business with its cyclical fluctuations at a time when a favorable price could be realized.

The theory of the United States in bringing this suit is that the acquisition of Consolidated constitutes an illegal restraint of interstate commerce because all manufacturers except United States Steel will be excluded from the business of supplying Consolidated's requirements of rolled steel products, and because competition now existing between Consolidated and United States Steel in the sale of structural fabricated products and pipe will be eliminated. In addition, the government alleges that the acquisition of Consolidated, viewed in the light of the previous series of acquisitions by United States Steel, constitutes an attempt to monopolize the production and sale of fabricated steel products in the Consolidated market. The appellees contend that the amount of competition which will be eliminated is so insignificant that the restraint effected is a reasonable restraint not an t tempt to monopolize and not prohibited by the Sherman Act. On the record before us and in agreemend with the trial court we conclude that the government has failed to prove its contention that the acquisition of Consolidated would unreasonably lessen competition in the three respects charged, and therefore the proposed contract is not forbidden by § 1 of the Sherman Act. We further hold that the government has failed to prove an attempt to monopolize in violation of § 2.

We turn first to the charge that the proposed purchase will lessen competition by excluding producers of rolled steel products other than United States Steel from supplying the requirements of Consolidated. Over the ten-year period from 1937 to 1946 Consolidated purchased over two million tons of rolled steel products, including the abnormally high wartime requirements. Whatever amount of rolled steel products Consolidated uses in the future will be supplied insofar as possible from other subsidiaries of United States Steel, and other producers of rolled steel products will lose Consolidated as a prospective customer.

The parties are in sharp dispute as to the size and nature of the market for rolled steel products with which Consolidated's consumption is to be compared. The appellees argue that rolled steel products are sold on a national scale, and that for the major producers the entire United States should be regarded as the market. Viewed from this standpoint, Consolidated's requirements are an insignificant fraction of the total market, less than 1/2 of 1%. The government argues that the market must be more narrowly drawn, and that the relevant market to be considered is the elevenstate area in which Consolidated sells its products, and further that in that area by considering only the consumption of structural and plate fabricators a violation of the Sherman Act has been established. If all sales of rolled steel products in the Consolidated market are considered, Consolidated's purchases of two million tons represent a little more than 3% of the total of 60 million tons. The figure is not appreciably different if the fiv-year period 1937-41 or 1946 alone are used as the measuring periods. If the comparable market is construed even more narrowly, and is restricted to the consumption of plates and shapes in the Consolidated market, figures for 1937 indicate that Consolidated's consumption of plates and shapes was 13% of the total. Data are offered by the government for 1946 which are too uncertain to furnish a reliable guide.

The government realizes the force of appellees' argument that rolled steel products are sold on a national scale, and attempts to demonstrate that during the non-war years 80% of Consolidated's requirements were produced on the West Coast; Consolidated resorts to data not in the record to demonstrate that in fact only 26% of Consolidated's rolled steel purchases were produced in plants located in the Consolidated market area. Whether we accept the government's or Consolidated's figures, however, they are of little value in determining the extent to which West Coast fabricators will purchase rolled steel products in the eastern market in the future, since the construction of new plants at Geneva and Fontana and the creation of new basing points on the West Coast will presumably give West Coast rolled steel producers a far larger share of the West Coast fabricating market than before the war.

Another difficulty is that the record furnishes little indication as to the propriety of considering plates and shapes as a market distinct from other rolled steel products. If rolled steel producers can make other products as easily as plates and shapes, then the effect of the removal of Consolidated's demand for plates and shapes must be measured not against the market for plates and shapes alone, but for all comparable rolled products. The record suggests, but does not conclusively indicate, that rolled steel producers can make other products interchangeably with shapes and plates, and that therefore we should not measure the potential injury to competition by considering the total demand for shapes and plates alone, but rather compare Consolidated's demand for rolled steel products with the demand for all comparable rolled steel products in the Consolidated marketing area.

We read the record as showing that the trial court did not accept the theory that the comparable market was restricted to the demand for plates and shapes in the Consolia ted area, but did accept the government's theory that the market was to be restricted to the total demand for rolled steel products in the eleven-state area. On that basis the trial court found that the steel requirements of Consolidated represented 'a small part' of the consumption in the Consolidated area, that Consolidated was not a 'substantial market' for rolled steel producers selling in competition with United States Steel, and that the acquisition of Consolidated would not injure any competitor of United States Steel engaged in the production and sale of rolled steel products in the Consolidated market or elsewhere. We recognize the difficulty of laying down a rule as to what areas or products are competitive, one with another. In this case and on this record we have circumstances that strongly indicate to us that rolled steel production and consumption in the Consolidated marketing area is the competitive area and product for consideration.

In analyzing the injury to competition resulting from the withdrawal of Consolidated as a purchaser of rolled steel products, we have been considering the acquisition of Consolidated as a step in the vertical integration of United States Steel. Regarded as a seller of fabricated steel products rather than as a purchaser of rolled steel products, however, the acquisition of Consolidated may be regarded as a step in horizontal integration as well, since United States Steel will broaden its facilities for steel fabrication through the purchase of Consolidated. In determining the extent of competition between Consolidated and the two structural fabrication subsidiaries of United States Steel in the sale of fabricated steel products, we must again determine the size of the market in which the two companies may be said to compete. The parties agree that United States Steel does no plate fabrication, and that competition is restricted to fabricating structural steel products and pipe. Consolidated makes pipe by bending and welding plates, whereas National Tube, a United States Steel subsidiary, makes seamless pipe through a process which the parties agree does not fall under the heading of steel fabrication.

We turn first to the field of fabricated structural steel products. As in the case of rolled steel, the appellees claim that structural fabricators sell on a national scale, and that Consolidated's production must be measured against all structural fabricators. An index of the position of Consolidated as a structural fabricator is shown by its bookings for the period 1937 1942, as reported by the American Institute of Steel Construction. During that period total bookings in the entire country were nearly 10,000,000 tons, of which Consolidated's share was only 84,533 tons. The government argues that competition is to be measured with reference to the eleven-state area in which Consolidated sells its products. Viewed on that basis, total bookings for the limited area for the six-year period were 1,665,698, of which United States Steel's share was 17% and Consolidated's 5%. The government claims that Consolidated has become a more important factor since that period, and alleges that bookings for 1946 in the Consolidated market were divided among 90 fabricators, of which United States Steel had 13% and Consolidated and Bethlehem Steel each had 11%. The next largest structural fabricators had 9%, 6% and 3% of the total. Although the appellees challenge the accuracy of the government's 1946 figures, and the district court made no reference to them in the findings, we accept them as sufficiently reliable for our present purpose. The figures on which the government relies demonstrate that at least in the past competition in structural steel products has been conducted on a national scale. Five out of the ten structural fabricators having the largest sales in the Consolidated market perform their fabrication operations outside the area, including United States Steel and Bethlehem Steel. Purchasers of fabi cated structural products have been able to secure bids from fabricators throughout the country, and therefore statistics showing the share of United States Steel and Consolidated in the total consumption of fabricated structural products in any prescribed area are of little probative value in ascertaining the extent to which consumers of these products would be injured through elimination of competition between the two companies.

As in the case of rolled steel products, however, wartime developments have made prewar statistics of little relevance. The appellees urge three reasons why eastern fabricators will be at a competitive disadvantage with western fabricators for the western market: the availability of rolled steel products from the Geneva plant and other West Coast plants at a lower price, the increase in commercial freight rates on fabricated products, and the abolition of land grant rates. The increase in freight rates has made it less profitable for eastern fabricators to sell in the West, and the elimination of land grant rates on government shipments has made it less profitable for eastern fabricators to sell to government agencies in the West. Whatever competition may have existed in the past between Consolidated and the two bridge company subsidiaries of United States Steel, the appellees urge, will exist to a much lesser extent in the future. Consequently, even though the government may be correct in claiming that the eleven-state area is the proper market for measuring competition with Consolidated, the government may not at the same time claim that prewar statistics as to United States Steel's share of that market are of major significance.

Apart from the question of the geographical size of the market, the appellees urge that the bookings for fabricated structural steel products are of little significance because Consolidated and United States Steel make different types of structural steel products. In view of the fact that structural steel jobs are fabricated on an individual basis, it is difficult to compare the output of United States Steel with that of Consolidated, but the appellees argue that in general Consolidated does only light and medium fabrication, whereas United States Steel does heavy fabrication The appellees support their argument with an elaborate statistical analysis of bids by the two companies. Those figures show that Consolidated and United States Steel submitted bids for the same project in a very small number of instances. Such figures are not conclusive of lack of competition; the government suggests that knowledge that one party has submitted a bid may discourage others from bidding. The government has introduced very little evidence, however, to show that in fact the types of structural steel products sold by Consolidated are similar to those sold by United States Steel. The appellees further urge that only a small proportion of Consolidated's business fell in the category of structural steel products, and that as to plate fabrication and miscellaneous work there was no competition with United States Steel whatsoever. The trial court found on this issue that 16% of Consolidated's business was in structural steel products and 70% in plate fabrication. On the basis of the statistics here summarized, the trial court found that competition between the two companies in the manufacture and sale of fabricated structural steel products was not substantial.

The government also argues that competition will be eliminated between Consolidated and National Tube in the sale of pipe. In this field we have no difficulty in determining the geographical scope of the market to be considered in determining the extent of competition, since the government claims that Consolidated and National Tube compete on a nation-wide scale in the field of large diameter pipe for oil and gas pipelines. Other types of pipe made by the two concerns are apparently not competitive as the government does not contest this assertion of the appellees. Consolidated in the past has specialized in comparatively light walled pipe for low pressure purposes, such as irrigation and water transmission, whereas National Tube has made a heavy walled pipe for high pressure purposes which is used chiefly in the oil and gas industry. National Tube pipe is substantially cheaper to produce. The record does show, however, that in the last few years Consolidated has supplied large diameter pipe for oil and gas pipelines on at least four occasions in three of which National Tube also supplied part of the pipe requirements. Although the record does not show the extent of Consolidated's business in this field, one of the witnesses estimated that Consolidated's contract to furnish 90% of the pipe for the Trans-Arabian pipeline would run to almost $30,000,000. The appellees seek to minimize the importance of competition in this field by pointing out that the pipe to be used for the Trans-Arabian pipeline is 30 and 31 inches in diameter, which is too large a size to be made by the seamless process employed by National Tube. The record is barreno n the comparative production between Consolidated and its competitors, other than United States Steel, in the manufacture of large pipe. The record does show that other major companies, not connected with any of the parties to this proceeding, do manufacture welded and seamless pipe. The appellees further claim that under normal circumstances Consolidated and National Tube would not compete in this field because Consolidated pipe sells for $30 a ton more than National Tube pipe, and that Consolidated is able to sell its pipe only because of the inability of National Tube and other concerns to take on additional orders. The government argues in reply that Consolidated may be able to reduce its costs of production if a sufficiently large volume of orders is obtained, but no evidence is adduced to support such a conclusion.

The opinion of the trial court summarized the facts outlined above, and concluded that there was no substantial competition between National Tube and Consolidated in the sale of pipe; one of the findings went even further, stating that the two companies 'do not compete' in the sale of their pipe products.

The trial court also concluded that the government had failed to prove that United States Steel had attempted to monopolize the business of fabricating steel products in the Consolidated market in violation of § 2. The trial judge apparently was of the opinion that since the purchase of Consolidated did not constitute a violation of § 1, it could not constitute a violation of § 2, since every attempt to monopolize must also constitute an illegal restraint. In his findings the trial judge concluded that the purchase agreement was entered into 'for sound business reasons' and with no intent to monopolize the production and sale of fabricated stel products.

In support of its position that the proposed contract violates § 1 of the Sherman Act, the government urges that all the legal conclusions of the district court were erroneous. It is argued that without regard to the percentages of consumption of rolled steel products by Consolidated just considered, the acquisition by United States Steel of Consolidated violates the Sherman Act. Such an arrangement, it is claimed, excludes other producers of rolled steel products from the Consolidated market and constitutes an illegal restraint per se to which the rule of reason is inapplicable. Or, phrasing the argument differently, the government's contention seems to be that the acquisition of facilities which provide a controlled market for the output of the Geneva plant is a process of vertical integration and invalid per se under the Sherman Act. The acquisition of Consolidated, it is pointed out, would also eliminate competition between Consolidated and the subsidiaries of United States Steel in the sale of structural steel products and pipe products, and would eliminate potential competition from Consolidated in the sale of other steel products. We also note that the acquisition of Consolidated will bring United States for the first time into the field of plate fabrication.

A. We first lay to one side a possible objection to measuring the injury to competition by reference to a market which is less than nation-wide in area. The Sherman Act is not limited to eliminating restraints whose effects cover the entire United States; we have consistently held that where the relevant competitive market covers only a small area the Sherman Act may be invoked to prevent unreasonable restraints within that area. In United States v. Yellow Cab Co., 332 U.S. 218, 67 S.Ct. 1560, 91 L.Ed. 2010, we sustained the validity of a complaint which alleged that the defendants had monopolized the cab operating business in four large cities. It is the volume in the area which the alleged restraints affect that is important. In United States v. Griffith, 334 U.S. 100, 68 S.Ct. 941, we found restraint of trade by a chain of motion picture exhibitors covering a small area. Although our previous discussion has indicated the difficulties in accepting the eleven-state area in which Consolidated sells its products as the relevant competitive market, we accept for the purposes of decision the government's argument that this area is the one to be considered in measuring the effect on competition of the withdrawal of Consolidated as a market for other rolled steel producers and of the bringing together under common control of Consolidated and the fabricating subsidiaries of United States Steel.

B. The government relies heavily on United States v. Yellow Cab Co., supra, to support its argument that the withdrawal of Consolidated as a possible consumer for the goods of other rolled steel producers constitutes an illegal restraint. The complaint in the Yellow Cab case charged that there was a plan, an intent, to monopolize the cab business, from manufacture through operation in the four large cities, by acquiring cab operating companies or interests therein; tying those companies into a cab manufacturing company and requiring the operating companies to purchase their cabs from the manufacturer at a price above the prevailing market. There was no allegation that the volume of cab production which was thus excluded as a market for rival cab manufacturers was a substantial proportion of the total volume of cabs produced, and the government concludes that the case stands for the proposition that it is illegal per se for a manufacturer to preempt and market for his goods through vertical integration provided that an 'appreciable' amount of interstate commerce is involved.

We do not construe our holding in the Yellow Cab case to make illegal the acquisition by United States Steel of this outlet for its rolled steel without consideration of its effect on the opportunities of other competitor producers to market their rolled steel. In discussing the charge in the Yellow Cab case, we said that the fact that the conspirators were integrated did not insulate them from the act, not that corporate integration violated the act. In the complaint the government charged that the defendants had combined and conspired to effect the restraints in question with the intent and purpose of monopolizing the cab business in certain cities, and on motion to dismiss that allegation was accepted as true. Where a complaint charges such an unreasonable restraint as the facts of the Yellow Cab case show, the amount of interstate trade affected is immaterial in determining whether a violation of the Sherman Act has been charged. A restraint may be unreasonable either because a restraint otherwise reasonable is accompanied with a specific intent to accomplish a forbidden restraint or because it falls within the class of restraints that are illegal per se. For example, where a complaint charges that the defendants have engaged in price fixing, or have concertedly refused to deal with non-members of an association, or have licensed a patented device on condition that unpatented materials be employed in conjunction with the patented device, then the amount of commerce involved is immaterial because such restraints are illegal per se. Nothing in the Yellow Cab case supports the theory that all exclusive dealing arrangements are illegal per se.

A subsidiary will in all probability deal only with its parent for goods the parent can furnish. That fact, however, does not make the acquisition invalid. When other elements of Sherman Act violations are present, the fact of corporate relationship is material and can be considered in the determination of whether restraint or attempt to restrain exists. That this is the teaching of the Yellow Cab case is indicated by the following quotation: 'And so in this case, the common ownership and control of the various corporate appellees are impotent to liberate the alleged combination and conspiracy from the impact of the Act. The complaint charges that the restraint of interstate trade was not only effected by the combination of the appellees but was the primary object of the combination. The theory of the complaint, to borrow language from United States v. Reading Co., 253 U.S. 26, 57, 40 S.Ct. 425, 432, 64 L.Ed. 760, is that 'dominating power' over the cab operating companies 'was not obtained by normal expansion to meet the demands of a business growing as a result of superior and enterprising management, but by deliberate, calculated purchase for control.' If that theory is borne out in this case by the evidence, coupled with proof of an undue restraint of interstate trade, a plain violation of the Act has occurred.' 332 U.S. at pages 227, 228, 67 S.Ct. at page 1565, 91 L.Ed. 2010. That view is in accord with previous decisions of the Court.

The legality of the acquisition by United States Steel of a market outlet for its rolled steel through the purchase of the manufacturing facilities of Consolidated depends not merely upon the fact of that acquired control but also upon many other factors. Exclusive dealings for rolled steel between Consolidated and United States Steel, brought about by vertical integration or otherwise, are not illegal, at any rate until the effect of such control is to unreasonably restrict the opportunities ofc ompetitors to market their product.

In United States v. Paramount Pictures, 334 U.S. 131, 68 S.Ct. 915, we were presented with a situation in which the government charged that vertical integration was illegal under the Sherman Act. We held that control by the major producer-distributors over nearly three-quarters of the first-run theaters in cities with population over 100,000 was not of itself illegal, and we remanded the case to the district court for further findings. In outlining the factors which we considered to be significant in determining the legality of vertical integration, we emphasized the importance of characterizing the nature of the market to be served, and the leverage on the market which the particular vertical integration creates or makes possible. A second test which we considered important in the Paramount case was the purpose or intent with which the combination was conceived. When a combination through its actual operation results in an unreasonable restraint, intent or purpose may be inferred; even though no unreasonable restraint may be achieved, nevertheless a finding of specific intent to accomplish such an unreasonable restraint may render the actor liable under the Sherman Act. Compare United States v. Griffith, 334 U.S. 100, 68 S.Ct. 941.

It seems clear to us that vertical integration, as such without more, cannot be held violative of the Sherman Act. It is an indefinite term without explicit meaning. Even in the iron industry where could a line be drawn-at the end of mining the ore, the production of the pig-iron or steel ingots, when the rolling mill operation is completed, fabrication on order or at some stage of manufacture into standard merchandise? No answer would be possible and therefore the extent of permissible integration must be governed, as other factors in Sherman Act violations, by the other circumstances of individual cases. Technological advances may easily require a basic industry plant to expand its processes into semi-finished or finished goods so as to produce desired articles in greater volume and with less expense.

It is not for courts to determine the course of the Nation's economic development. Economists may recommend, the legislative and executive branches may chart legal courses by which the competitive forces of business can seek to reduce costs ad increase production so that a higher standard of living may be available to all. The evils and dangers of monopoly and attempts to monopolize that grow out of size and efforts to eliminate others from markets, large or small, have caused Congress and the Executive to regulate commerce and trade in many respects. But no direction has appeared of a public policy that forbids, per se, an expansion of facilities of an existing company to meet the needs of new markets of a community, whether that community is nation-wide or county-wide. On the other hand, the courts have been given by Congress wide powers in monopoly regulation. The very broadness of terms such as restraint of trade, substantial competition and purpose to monopolize have placed upon courts the responsibility to apply the Sherman Act so as to avoid the evils at which Congress aimed. The basic industries, with few exceptions, do not approach in America a cartelized form. If businesses are to be forbidden from entering into different stages of production that order must come from Congress, not the courts.

Applying the standards laid down in the Paramount case, we conclude that the so-called vertical integration resulting from the acquisition of Consolidated does not unreasonably restrict the opportunities of the competitor producers of rolled steel to market their product. We accept as the relevant competitive market the total demand for rolled steel products in the eleven-state area; over the past ten years Consolidated has accounted for only 3% of that demand, and if expectations as to the development of the western steel industry are realized, Consolidated's proportion may be expected to be lower than that figure in the future. Nor can we find a specific intent in the present case to accomplish an unreasonable restraint, for reasons which we discuss under heading III of this opinion.

C. We turn now to a discussion of the significance, as to possible violation of the Sherman Act, of the fact that Consolidated has been a competitor of United States Steel in structural steel fabrication and in the manufacture of pipe. The same tests which measure the legality of vertical integration by acquisition are also applicable to the acquisition of competitors in identical or similar lines of merchandise. It is first necessary to delimit the market in which the concerns compete and then determine the extent to which the concerns are in competition in that market. If such acquisition results in or is aimed at unreasonable restraint, then the purchase is forbidden by the Sherman Act. In determining what constitutes unreasonable restraint, we do not think the dollar volume is in itself of compelling significance; we look rather to the percentage of business controlled, the strength of the remaining competition, whether the action springs from business requirements or purpose to monopolize, the probable development of the industry, consumer demands, and other characteristics of the market. We do not undertake to prescribe any set of percentage figures by which to measure the reasonableness of a corporation's enlargement of its activities by the purchase of the assets of a competitor. The relative effect of percentage command of a market varies with the setting in which that factor is placed.

The United States makes the point that the acquisition of Consolidated would preclude and restrain substantial potential competition in the production and sale of other steel products than fabricated structural steel and pipe. Force is added to this contention by the fact, adverted to above at pages 500 and 512 of 334 U.S., at pages 1110 and 1116 of 68 S.Ct. that United States Steel does not plate fabrication while Consolidated does. By plate fabrication Consolidate produces many articles not now produced by United States Steel. We mention, as examples, boilers, gas tanks, smoke stacks, storage tanks and barges. Attention is also called to the war activities of Consolidated in steel shipbuilding as indicative of its potentialities as a competitor. We have noted, 334 U.S. 498, 68 S.Ct. 1109, supra, that this construction was under government direction and financing. We agree that any acquisition of fabricating equipment eliminates some potential competition from anyone who might own or acquire such facilities. We agree, too, with the government's position that potential competition from producers of presently non-competitive articles as well as the possibility that acquired facilities may be used in the future for the production of new articles in competition with others may be taken into consideration in weighing the effect of any acquisition of assets on restraint of trade.

The government's argument, however, takes us into highly speculative situations. Steel ship construction for war purposes was an enterprise undertaken at government expense. We know of nothing from the record that would lead Consolidated or United States Steel to branch out into the peace-time steel ship industry at their own risk. The necessary yards have been sold. It is true that United States Steel might go into plate fabrication. The record shows nothing as to production or demand in the Consolidated trade area for plate fabricated articles. Nothing appears as to the number of producers of such goods in that territory. What we have said in other places in this opinion as to the growing steel industry in this area is pertinent here. Eastern fabricators will find it difficult to meet competition from western fabricators in the western market. Cheaper western rolled steel and freight rates are a handicap to eastern fabricators. Looking at the situation here presented, we are unwilling to hold that possibilities of interference with future competition are serious enough to justify us in declaring that this contract will bring about unlawful restraint.

We conclude that in this case the government has failed to prove that the elimination of competition between Consolidated and the structural fabricating subsidiaries of United States Steel constitutes an unreasonable restraint. If we make the doubtful assumption that the United States Steel could be expected in the future to sell 13% of the total of structural steel products in the Consolidated trade area and that Consolidated could be expected to sell 11%, we conclude that where we have the present unusual conditions of the western steel industry and in view of the facts of this case as developed at pages 511 to 516 of 334 U.S., at pages 1116 to 1118 of 68 S.Ct. it can not be said there would be an unreasonable restraint of trade. To hold this does not imply that additional acquisitions of fabricating facilities for structural steel would not become monopolistic. Notwithstanding some differences as to the business of Consolidated and United States Steel in respect to the character of structural steel products fabricated by each, there is competitionbetween the two for both light and heavy work. The western steel industry is developing. Fontana and Geneva as well as other producers are making available for fabricators larger supplies of rolled steel so that the West is becoming less dependent on eastern suppliers. We are of the opinion, moreover, in view of the number of West Coast fabricators (see 334 U.S. 501, 68 S.Ct. page 1111) and the ability of out-of-the-area fabricators to compete because of the specialized character of structural steel production in regard to orders and designs, that this acquisition is permissible.

We likewise conclude that the elimination of competition between Consolidated and National Tube (a United States Steel subsidiary) does not constitute an unreasonable restraint. Competition at the time of the contract was restricted to the sale of large diameter pipe for oil and gas pipelines, see 334 U.S. 516 to 518, 68 S.Ct. pages 1118 to 1119, supra, and the only indication in the record that competition in pipe would exist in a broader field in the future is contained in the suggestion, without proof or specification that Consolidated, through technological advances or business expansion might produce a wider range of pipe sizes and types. This is not enough to persuade us that the purchase will unduly restrain trade in pipe. The record does show that in three instances Consolidated and National Tube each supplied pipe for a new pipeline. It is clear that these line pipe contracts were obtained by Consolidated in a seller's market. We are given nothing as to the national production of oil and gas trunkline pipe or the relation of the pipe sold by Consolidated and National Tube to this production. The government does not contest appellees' statement that Consolidated pipe for this purpose is substantially more expensive than seamless pipe, and in the absence of a showing that welded pipe has advantages over seamless pipe to compensate for the increased cost or that Consolidated's production costs may be expected to decline with an increase in volume, it does not seem to us that it has been shown that competition in this field between the parties to this contract is so substantial that its elimination under these circumstances constitutes an unreasonable restraint.

The government cites four antitrust cases involving railroads to support its argument that control by one competitor over another violates the Sherman Act, even though the percentage of business for which they compete may be small. The appellees cite cases from this Court and lower courts in which acquisition by one competitor of another was held not to violate the antitrust laws. We do not stop to examine those cases to determine whether we would now approve either their language or their holdings. The factual situation in all those cases is so dissimilar from that presented here that they furnish little guidance in determining whether the competition which will be eliminated through the purchase of Consolidated is sufficient to warrant injunctive relief requested by the government.

We turn last to the allegation of the government that United States Steel has attempted to monopolize the production and sale of fabricated steel products in the Consolidated market. We think that the trial court applied too narrow a test to this charge; even though the restraint effected may be reasonable under § 1, it may constitute an attempt to monopolize forbidden by § 2 if a specific intent to monopolize may be shown. To show that specific intent the government recites the long history of acquisitions of United States Steel, and argues that the present acquisition when viewed in the light of that history demonstrates the existence of a specific intent to monopolize. Although this Court held in 1920 that United States Steel had not violated § 2 through the acquisition of 180 formerly indepn dent concerns, we may look to those acquisitions as well as to the eight acquisitions from 1924 to 1943 to determine the intent of United States Steel in acquiring Consolidated.

We look not only to those acquisitions, however, but also to the latest acquisition-the government-owned plant at Geneva. We think that last acquisition is of significance in ascertaining the intent of United States Steel in acquiring Consolidated. The bid of United States Steel for the Geneva plant emphasized the importance of erecting finishing facilities to assure a market for Geneva's production, and we think it a fact of weight that many of the other bids were conditioned upon the government lending money or making grants for erecting such facilities at no cost to the bidder. No objection was interposed when United States Steel indicated that it proposed to spend $25,000,000 to erect a cold reduction mill at Pittsburg, and it is doubtful whether objections could be raised if United States Steel proposed to build instead of to buy from a competitor fabricating facilities similar to those possessed by Consolidated. The reasons given by Consolidated and United States Steel for the purchase and sale of the assets here involved seem not to involve any action condemned by the Sherman Act. Granting that the sale will to some extent affect competition, the acquisition of a firm outlet to absorb a portion of Geneva's rolled steel production seems to reflect a normal business purpose rather than a scheme to circumvent the law. United States Steel, despite its large sales, many acquisitions and leading position in the industry, has declined in the proportion of rolled steel products it manufactures in comparison with its early days. In 1901 it produced 50.1%; in 1911, 45.7%; in 1946, 30.4%. For the period 1937-1946, it produced 33.2%. Its size is impressive. Size has significance also in an appraisal of alleged violations of the Sherman Act. But the steel industry is also of impressive size and the welcome westward extension of that industry requires that the existing companies go into production there or abandon that market to other organizations.

We have dealt with the objections to this purchase because of the exclusion of other rolled steel producers from supplying Consolidated's demand for that product and because of the alleged restraint of trade involved in the extension of United States Steel's fabricating and pipe commerce. It has been necessary to treat these arguments separately so as to isolate the facts and figures which convince us that these objections do not rise to the level of proving a violation of law. It only need be added that we have also considered the various items of objection in the aggregate and in the light of the charge of intent to monopolize. But even from that point of view, the government has not persuaded us that the proposed contract violates our public policy as stated in the Sherman Act.

The judgment of the District Court is affirmed.

Affirmed.

Mr. Justice DOUGLAS, with whom Mr. Justice BLACK, Mr. Justice MURPHY, and Mr. Justice RUTLEDGE, concur, dissenting.