Commodities | Apr 03 2012
By Greg Peel
No one is much interested in buying the quantity of UF6 on offer in the US and while demand remains for U3O8 the only supply of note is in Europe and genuine buyers are looking for supply contracts a little longer dated than spot. The end result has been a quiet March for uranium in quarterly terms. March monthly spot volumes were an improvement on February but March 2012 saw only 6.9mlbs of U3O8 equivalent change hands compared to 18mlbs in March 2011, industry consultant TradeTech reports.
Last week saw a little flurry of buying interest ahead of quarter end and TradeTech notes 700,000lbs of U3O8 equivalent traded compared to only 400,000lbs the week before. That flurry sees TradeTech's indicative spot price rise by US10c to US$51.10/lb. Sellers remain reluctant to drop prices to meet buying interest.
TradeTech's monthly price indicator thus also closes at US$51.10/lb, down from US$52.00/lb in February. There were no transactions reported in the term market last week and only one in all of March, leaving TradeTech's term price indicators steady at US$54/lb (medium) and US$60/lb (long).
The negative price gap between UF6 on offer in the US and U3O8 sought in Europe remains, TradeTech notes, but March has seen that gap narrow somewhat.
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