Commodities | Nov 24 2015
By Greg Peel
The week before last saw US markets punctuated by the Veterans Day part-holiday, while the coming week sees Thanksgiving on Thursday and market half-sessions either side. Little activity is expected in uranium markets.
And nor was there much going on last week, in between holidays. Industry consultant TradeTech reports six transactions totalling 700,000lbs U3O8 equivalent concluded in the spot market, with TradeTech’s weekly price indicator unchanged by week’s end at US$36.00/lb for the third week running.
Four transactions were reported in term markets last week but for a total of only 1.5mlbs. TradeTech’s term price indicators remain unchanged at US$38.75/lb (mid) and US$44.00/lb (long).
While the business of supplying existing nuclear facilities might be subdued at present, the business of expanding nuclear power capacity continues a-pace globally.
The UK government announced last week a plan to phase out coal-fired power plants not fitted with carbon capture capability. The government will instead champion natural gas and nuclear power options as a means of reducing the UK’s carbon emissions, while keeping an eye on consumer pricing. Plans to build new nuclear facilities are now well underway.
Meanwhile China has signed a deal to build and 85% finance a fourth and possibly a fifth nuclear power plant for Argentina. And Russia is set to finance and build a four-unit plant that will become Egypt’s first nuclear facility.
Thus in the bigger picture, global nuclear power is powering on despite plans from some European countries to phase out nuclear energy and despite what is a very slow process of restarting some but not all of Japan’s idled reactors.
In the short term however, most global utilities have now secured sufficient supply to see them through the northern winter and hence spot market activity is winding down for Christmas.
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