URANIUM BUYING by Government will be extended five years beyond 1962 expiration date of current program. New plan will put fixed price of $8 a Ib. on domestic concentrate, instead of having AEC negotiate separate contracts with producers. AEC will also let miners sell part of ore direct to licensed commercial users for first time.

AIR ROUTE TO MOSCOW, now serviced from West only by Finns and Scandinavians, is in prospect for Pan American World Airways. On Soviets' initiative, Pan Am is dickering with Russia, hopes to start service late this year. If Reds let in Pan Am, State Department and Civil Aeronautics Board will probably grant Russia's airline Aeroflot equal landing rights in U.S.

GAS TURBINE ENGINES will soon be competing in the pleasure-type small-boat market. Boeing Airplane Co. has won first commercial contract to install eight 240-h.p. gas turbine engines (used to start jet planes, power minesweepers) on cruiser fleet operated by Creole Petroleum on Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo. New engines give speeds up to 33 m.p.h., weigh one-fourth as much as comparable piston engines.

WEST GERMANY'S BOOM has reached point where bankers worry about bust. To check inflation, bankers have nearly doubled loan discount rate to 5.5%, started bitter fight with industrialists. Chancellor Konrad Adenauer says credit pinch threatens entire recovery.

NEW BEER will be marketed by Anheuser-Busch as competition for fast-growing local brews (80% of 1955 market), to replace the unsuccessful "Busch Lager." Called "Busch Bavarian," new beer will be lighter, less tangy than Budweiser, cost 5-c- less per bottle.

HIGH-SPEED TURNPIKES will stretch from New York to Chicago by November. New $27 million bridge across Delaware River opened for traffic last week, connecting New Jersey Turnpike with Pennsylvania and Ohio Turnpikes, running to Indiana state line. The 160-mile Indiana Turnpike to Chicago will be completed this fall. Toll cost for 825-mile New York to Chicago trip: about $11.

COFFEE PRICES, rising since last August, are jumping up again. With price boosts by middlemen, General Foods Corp. (Maxwell House, Sanka), Standard Brands (Chase & Sanborn) and other big roasters are hiking prices between 2-c- and 4-c- per Ib. wholesale. Total price increase since August: 11-c-.

TV MARKET SCRAMBLE poses serious problems for Columbia Broadcasting System and Raytheon Manufacturing Co., both relatively small (second ten) producers and both losing money on set business. CBS is considering dropping set business altogether, while Raytheon, with radio and TV losses of $1,000,000 in current fiscal year, is dickering with Admiral to sell a warehouse and an assembly plant, keep tube-making facilities for other electronics production.

POSTAL-RATE INCREASE will probably be put off for at least another year. Though House Post Office committee has approved a $432 million rate hike (to 4-c- first class, 7-c- air mail), chances are slim that Congress, with many members facing reelection, will pass the Administration-backed measure.

REPUBLIC PICTURES will go to West Coast investment-banking firm if deal currently being discussed goes through. Republic President Herbert J. Yates has given Bankers Cantor, Fitzgerald & Co. a 60-day option to buy up to 800,000 shares of stock owned by him and his family for $8,700,000 to $10 million, thus give them 33%-40% of total shares outstanding and working control.

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