Commodities | Jul 28 2015
By Greg Peel
Activity on the uranium spot market has come to a complete standstill. Industry consultant TradeTech reports one seller did capitulate towards the end of last week and lowered its price in order to entice some buying interest, but could not cement a deal.
In all, only three transactions were reported in the spot market last week, totalling a mere 350,000lbs of U3O8 equivalent. TradeTech’s weekly spot price indicator remains unchanged for the third week running at US$36.25/lb.
While such a price is not about to spark excitement among uranium producers, at least they might take solace in the fact most other commodities have suffered falling prices of late while uranium has gone nowhere.
There were no transactions reported in the uranium term markets last week either. TradeTech’s term price indicators also remain unchanged at US$39.50/lb (mid) and US$46.00/lb (long).
On the positive side, news from India should have provided some comfort for sombre uranium producers.
India continues to move forward with plans to build additional nuclear reactors. Projects currently commissioned or under construction are expected to take the country’s nuclear power capacity to 10,800MW by 2018-19. The government will provide financing for two further projects to begin this year, adding another 3,400MW, and another two-unit project is expected to be initiated in the near future.
As India’s nuclear capacity builds, the government has also decided it would be prudent for the country to create a strategic uranium reserve in order to head off any shortage of fuel. At this stage the government believes a pool of between 13m and 39mlbs of U3O8 should provide enough to keep the country’s reactors going for five to ten years.
But while India ramps up its nuclear power, France is ramping down.
The French parliament has now adopted an energy law that will see nuclear power providing 50% of France’s power capacity by 2025, down from a current 75%. The legislation also calls for a 30% drop in the use of fossil fuels, from 2012 levels, and a 40% drop in carbon emissions, from 1990 levels, by 2030.
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