Commodities | May 28 2009
By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck
Spot uranium prices are back in retreat and this shouldn’t surprise anyone, says industry consultant Ux Consulting, after all, the rise since bottoming at US$40/lb only weeks ago had been nothing less but stellar with spot price deals being concluded at around US$51/lb last week. No surprise thus, spot activity has taken a step back (or two) and the price agreed to in new deals has softened a bit.
TradeTech earlier this week announced it had lowered its weekly spot price indicator by US$1 to US$50/lb. UxC has followed suit by lowering its own weekly spot price by US$2 to US$49/lb.
Time to be concerned again? UxC doesn’t seem to think so. The consultant reports aggressive offers are still being made in the market, the difference is sellers are trying to contact utilities directly these days, instead of doing so publicly through the open spot market. This should keep some pressure off registered spot price deals.
Also, reports UxC, despite the past week only registering deals for around 1.5 million pounds U3O8 equivalent, total spot activity for May is now bordering on breaking the all-time monthly volume record of 10.5 million pounds U3O8 equivalent that was set back in June 1990. In fact, the 32 transactions registered so far in May already surpass the most recent all-time record of 29 deals posted this past November.
The U3O8 spot price might now have retreated back below US$50, the consultant points out spot uranium is still up US$5.00 for the month. On UxC’s count, year-to-date deals total 23.5 million pounds under 83 transactions thus far.
UxC’s long term price indicator has remained at US$65/lb. This compares with US$69/lb over at TradeTech.
