{"id":70875,"date":"2017-10-03T10:42:15","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T23:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fnarena.com\/?p=70875"},"modified":"2017-10-03T10:42:15","modified_gmt":"2017-10-02T23:42:15","slug":"uranium-week-another-month-of-stasis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/2017\/10\/03\/uranium-week-another-month-of-stasis\/","title":{"rendered":"Uranium Week: Another Month Of Stasis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another month has gone by in which the uranium spot price has been unable to break away from the US$20\/lb mark.
\n <\/p>\n

By Greg Peel<\/p>\n

In positive news for the nuclear industry, the US Department of Energy last week conditionally committed US$3.7bn of loan guarantees to the owners of Plant Vogtle in Georgia, on top of US$8.3bn already committed, in order that construction of units 3 and 4 may continue.<\/p>\n

The Palisades plant in Michigan will now remain in service until 2022, having previously been slated for shutdown in 2018, and units 1 and 2 of the South Texas project will continue to operate until 2047-48 under renewed operating licences granted by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.<\/p>\n

In Japan, the mayor of Ohi last week consented to the restart of Kansai Electric’s Ohi units 3 and 4. With local government approval secured, restart now needs to be secured from the government of the Fukui prefecture.<\/p>\n

On The Spot<\/strong><\/p>\n

The spot uranium market did enjoy more positive sentiment early in the week. The spot price rose to US$20.60\/lb mid-week before fading away thereafter. Industry consultant TradeTech’s weekly spot price indicator rose US55c to US$20.40\/lb. Seven transactions were concluded totalling 700,000lbs U3O8 equivalent. Utilities were among the buyers.<\/p>\n

Over the month of September, 36 transactions totalling 4.1mlbs U3O8 equivalent were concluded. The month-end price of US$20.40\/lb is up US15c from the end of August.<\/p>\n

The spot price remains -23% below the 2017 peak price of US$26.50\/lb booked in February. The year’s low remains US$19.25\/lb, booked at the end of May, but the spot price has been unable to trade above US$21\/lb since that time. Rather, it has simply gyrated around the US$20\/lb mark in painfully incremental moves.<\/p>\n

It continues to be a case of utilities seeing US$20\/lb as being the line in the sand under which they are prepared to pick up material, but over which they are not in any hurry.<\/p>\n

Term Markets<\/strong><\/p>\n

There has been, nevertheless, a bit of movement in term markets. Increasing utility interest has seen TradeTech raise its mid-term price indicator by US20c to US$24.50\/lb – the first increase in a long time.<\/p>\n

Alas, while longer demand remains steady, TradeTech’s long-term price indicator has fallen by -US1.00 to US$30.00\/lb.
\n <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Find out why FNArena subscribers like the service so much: "Your Feedback (Thank You)<\/a>" – Warning this story contains unashamedly positive feedback on the service provided.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another month has gone by in which the uranium spot price has been unable to break away from the US$20\/lb mark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":70877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}