Commodities | Aug 25 2015
By Greg Peel
While transaction volumes in the uranium market have been mostly weak all year, the northern summer period has seen a typical slowdown on top of already tepid interest. Last week saw five transactions in the spot market, industry consultant TradeTech reports, totalling a mere 500,000lbs U3O8 equivalent.
However TradeTech notes fewer sellers are now looking to sell inventory, having been keen to do so at the start of the summer. Buyers have thus succumbed to having to pay higher prices, hence TradeTech’s weekly spot price indicator is up another US25c at US$36.50/lb. Spot prices are nevertheless reflecting increased demand in the terms markets.
While there were no transactions recorded in the term markets last week, several utilities are in the market looking to secure mid and long term supply contracts. TradeTech’s term price indicators remain unchanged at US$38.25/lb (mid) and US$45.00/lb (long).
Wallowing uranium prices have not discouraged the world’s leading producer of uranium, Kazakhstan, from increasing steady production, TradeTech notes. Total production reached 5883t U3O8 equivalent in the year ending June 30, up from 5650t the year before. State-owned Kazatomprom held its production levels steady, having produced 3117t in the June quarter compared to 3278t in the previous June quarter.
The story is nevertheless different in the US, where there is no state-owned producer. US June quarter production of 790,000lbs was down 32% from the March quarter and 28% from the previous June quarter, and represented the lowest quarterly production since 2005.
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