QUESTION FOR QUAKES or MALCOLM or ANYONE ELSE THAT KNOWS...What would be the purchasing relarionship between the Spot Market and the end users? GRAYHAWK50's article below got me thinking about that seeing according to Marin K the Russians control 42% of US supply and 50% of refining capactiy - of the world's refining capacity I'm assuming. And it is stated that most of the US consumption is purchased at spot also in that article.
Does an End User buy yellow cake on the spot and then contract a refiner to upgrade? Or does an End User buy yellow cake through the upgrader? Does the Upgrader also build the fuel assemblies or is there a third party involved?
If Russia does have 50% of the upgrading / refining capacity in the world and controls a large chunk of the spot sales then maybe what is keeping the spot low is the Russians keeping down the spot and making their profits on the refining bit - as the article alludes to.
thnx in advance - B2S2