RE:RE:Is the Spot Price dead? Thanks Destinator. Isn't that interesting. The spot market is very thinly traded even at the best of times so not surprised that there was only one trade made around Christmas Time. Fuel buyers have Christmas shopping to do as well you know....but not for Uranium.
Uranium is a very peculiar commodity in that there is such a large difference between the spot price and the medium and long contract prices. Normall the difference in price is related to the cost of storage but it is not that in the case of Uranium. One of the aims of the Kazakhs is to close the gap between spot price and long contract price and this may well be the start of them doing just that. One of the things I had expected was for material available on the spot market to dry up. Not sure if we can read that into these numbers bur I do agree with your analysis.
As sstv has said, reactors are still coming on line and demand is not abating any time soon. With contracts steadily rolling off and spot market material possibly drying up I think contracts are being negotiated right now....perhaps with the Kazakhs this time around. They have this market monopolised and I think western nuclear power producers are going to pay a heavy price for that. The Kazakhs are the OPEC of Uranium but with 5 times the clout.
This year will be fascinating to watch but I expect the big price moves to come around 2020.
Great post and very interesting. Thank you.
Malcolm