Commodities | Mar 22 2016
By Greg Peel
If Germany hasn’t got enough on its hands at the moment, last week saw two German and one Swedish operator of nuclear power plants in Germany approach the country’s Constitutional Court to challenge the government’s decision to phase out nuclear power. The decision was made five years ago following the Fukushima disaster and represents an expropriation of their assets, the power companies allege.
The power companies have already filed damages claims in lower regional courts to the tune of a net US$16bn.
The courts were also called into action last week in Japan following a temporary injunction placed on Kansai Electric’s intended restart of two of its Takahama reactors. Kansai Electric has filed an objection, but is not yet able to restart the reactors as planned.
On the other side of the coin, South Africa is expected to post request for proposals at the end of the month for the construction of 9,600MW of nuclear capacity and Turkey is expected to initiate a tender process for the construction of its third nuclear reactor next year.
Back in the immediate world, the plunge in the spot uranium price witnessed these past few weeks has finally drawn out some buying interest, industry consultant TradeTech reports. Utilities emerged in both the spot and term markets. The buying was hardly frenetic, nevertheless, and resulted in only four spot market transactions totalling 900,000lbs U3O8 equivalent.
The good news is these transactions were conducted at higher prices as the week wore on, such that TradeTech’s spot price indicator has risen US85c from the week before to US$29.60/lb.
Interest continues to build in term markets for delivery contracts in both U3O8 and UF6 but still it appears utilities are in no rush to secure deals. TradeTech’s term price indicators remain unchanged at US$33.90/lb (mid) and US$44.00/lb (long).
Find out why FNArena subscribers like the service so much: "Your Feedback (Thank You)" – Warning this story contains unashamedly positive feedback on the service provided.
