The spot price of uranium is about $35.25/lb, down 5 cents from Friday, as some sellers in the market, seeing demand wane, have lowered offer prices to conclude deals, analysts said Tuesday.
Price publisher TradeTech said Friday in its month-end report that "utilities were active buyers" in the market February, but their purchases mostly were discretionary.
"Without the presence of requirements-driven buying, sellers were faced with lowering offer prices to attract buyers or [forgo] sales opportunities altogether," TradeTech said.
A market source said Tuesday that the spot price is drifting down, but he does not expect it to fall much further. He said the spot price will get support when Toronto-based Uranium Participation Corp. enters the market.
The investment holding company said February 6 it had reached an agreement with underwriters to raise about $52 million to buy U3O8 and/or UF6 from the spot market. Market sources previously said that the deal would allow UPC to buy about 1.5 million lb of U3O8-equivalent, about 4% of annual spot demand.
"Going forward, you're going to have the buying pressure from UPC, and a number of utilities are looking at these prices as a signal to get in and buy," the market source said Tuesday.
The Platts NuclearFuel range for the week is $35-$36/lb.
TradeTech lowered its NUEXCO Exchange Value 15 cents Friday to $35.25/lb. According to TradeTech, the NUEXCO Exchange Value "reflects the company's judgment of the price at which spot and near-term transactions for significant quantities of U3O8 could be concluded as of the last day of the month."
Its daily spot price Monday was $35.25/lb, unchanged from Friday.
Rival price publisher Ux Consulting lowered its weekly uranium spot price Monday 40 cents to $35.10/lb.
Ux's daily broker average price Monday was $35.25/lb, down 13 cents/lb from Friday. The BAP is based on information from Evolution Markets and Numerco Limited, according to Ux. The BAP bid-offer spread Monday was $35.00-$35.50/lb, with both the bid and offer down 13 cents from Friday.
