Commodities | Jul 03 2012
By Andrew Nelson
A slow week last week ended what was a slow month for uranium trading. Spot prices barely budged on the 15 transactions reported in June by industry consultant TradeTech, with sellers unwilling to drop their prices and buyers not willing to pay more.
With traders comprising the vast majority of both buyers and sellers in the bulk of the transactions reported over the past several months, TradeTech notes the spot uranium price remains stuck between the lack of committed buyers and what are fairly unmotivated sellers at current levels.
Last week’s news that Japan had officially green-lighted the restart of two reactors did see a bit of renewed optimism in the market, but what seems to be an increasingly stubborn spot uranium market remained sluggish, with the announcement yet to produce any sort of uplift in prices.
Spot prices had slipped a little the week before the news, with sellers forced to drop prices a little to get a few deals done. However, TradeTech notes that sellers are becoming increasingly less willing to give in on pricing despite the lack of selling opportunities.
The good news is that at least transaction volumes have held steady for the past few months, although TradeTech notes that total spot market volume is down by 11m pounds in the first six months of 2012 compared to the same period last year. June volume was nearly 2.4m pounds, with three transactions involving less than 450,000 pounds occurring last week.
In June, the TradeTech Spot price indicator slipped 50c to $50.75, with no move from that level reported last week. The consultant notes that spot uranium demand continues to be dominated by discretionary and price sensitive demand, meaning there are but few sales opportunities for sellers seeking to do spot transactions.
Mid- and long-term demand, which had generated a bit of spill-over demand in the spot market for traders and other financial entities hoping to get their hands on stock, especially for the mid-term, have now faded says TradeTech. With the lack of spot market activity from buyers, the consultant notes sellers are locked in on any and all remaining mid- and long-term sales opportunities, while hoping for new demand.
There were only six term transactions reported for June that saw 4m pounds change hands. Deliveries are set to begin in late 2013 and continue over six years. TradeTech's Mid -Term price Indicator for June 30 stayed put at US$54.50 per pound on somewhat steady demand, while the Long-Term price indicator for June was unchanged at US$61.00 per pound. There were no changes in either market last week, with only two transactions a involving less than 500,000 pounds taking place.
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