Weekly Reports | Jul 25 2017
After seven consecutive incremental weekly gains, the spot uranium price fell back to the US$20/lb mark last week.
By Greg Peel
The spot uranium price spent the prior seven weeks posting gains, but the positive run resulted only in a 4.3% net increase. Last week industry consultant TradeTech’s weekly spot price indicator fell -US35c to US$20.00/lb.
Once again it appears the 20 mark is the current line in the sand below which buyers are interested and above which they are not. Just when the sellers thought they might be winning, it was back to chasing down prices once more.
Despite the incremental weekly price moves, the range of traded prices in a given week has widened, TradeTech notes. This is not a reflection of daily volatility but related to the vagaries of prices adjusted for different delivery locations, different delivery timing, and varying credit and/or payment terms between the trading parties.
The industry was to some extent distracted last week by the annual Nuclear Fuel Supply Forum held in Washington, although seven transactions were recorded in the spot market totalling 700,000lbs U3O8 equivalent.
There were no deals recorded in term markets last week and no change to TradeTech’s term price indicators of US$24.45/lb (mid) and US$34.00/lb (long).
The highlight of the Supply Forum was news that the first ever shipment of uranium departed Australia bound for India last week. The Australian supply agreement sparked a good deal of controversy in Australia when it was announced some years ago, given India is not a signatory to the global nuclear weapons non-proliferation treaty. Assurances were made that the uranium would only be used for power generation purposes.
Australians can only take the Indian government on its word. India is indeed planning to build ten new nuclear reactors by 2031, and representatives provided Forum attendees with additional detail.
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