Commodities | Dec 06 2011
By Greg Peel
Industry consultant TradeTech closed out its spot price indicator for November month-end at US$51.50/lb, down US25c from end-October. The slight drop in price belies activity earlier in the month when a burst of enthusiasm pushed the spot price US$4 higher, only to see buying interest quickly wane once more.
The month saw 34 transactions reported totalling over 5 million pounds of U3O8 equivalent, with traders rather than end-users doing most of the buying, TradeTech notes. Traders, producers and hedge funds were present on the sell-side.
Looking at last week's activity, month-end saw sellers keen to close out positions before some buying interest returned once we moved into December. Eight transactions totalling 1.2 million pounds saw TradeTech's indicative spot price tick up US25c to US$51.75/lb by week-end, but that's still down US50c from the previous week's price. Utilities were on the buy-side and producers on the sell-side with traders and hedge funds playing both sides of the spread.
The month of November saw only one transaction in the term market, involving one million pounds of U3O8. TradeTech has nevertheless lowered its indicative pricing for both the medium and long term markets, with the medium term down US50c to US$54.50/lb and the long term down US$1 to US$62/lb.
In a last minute sector update, the industry consultant reported overnight its daily spot price indicator regained US25c to US$52/lb.
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