\n\tBy Greg Peel<\/p>\n
\n\tFor weeks the global spot uranium market has been dogged by the geographical spread of UF6<\/span> on offer in the US and U3O8<\/span> sought in Europe leading to very little trading activity. As that gap has begun to narrow the buying interest has built up.<\/p>\n \n\tIndustry consultant TradeTech<\/span> had noted buyers sniffing around but few had felt the urgency to commit until a fortnight ago when a frustrated seller just dumped into the bid and walked off. This took TradeTech's<\/span> weekly spot price indicator down to US$51.00\/lb and suddenly the buyers attacked. The end result was seven transactions totalling<\/span> 1.6mlbs of U3O8<\/span> equivalent last week. TradeTech's<\/span> indicator remains at US$51.00\/lb, but that volume compares with only 400,000lbs<\/span> the previous week.<\/p>\n \n\tAll the buyers were represented – speculators, producers and utilities. There were no new transactions reported in the term market albeit TradeTech<\/span> notes a few supply contract tenders are nearing completion. TradeTech's<\/span> term price indicators remain at US$54\/lb (medium) and US$60\/lb (long). <\/p>\n \n\tUF6<\/span> is still for sale in the US at below US$51\/lb, but there's not a lot of interest. The interest in U3O8<\/span> at US$51\/lb is further evidence that the US$50\/lb mark is a line in the sand below which the real users – utilities – consider stocks to be good value. <\/p>\n