Washington (Platts)--18Dec2012/258 pm EST/1958 GMT
The spot price of uranium rose by $2 a pound over the past week to $45.50/lb U3O8 before falling to $44.75/lb Monday, according to price publishers TradeTech and Ux Consulting. Prices have been on the upswing since they slid to $42.23/lb December 6, TradeTech said. "Sellers consistently increased offer prices through mid-week as buyers emerged. By the end of the week, the higher prices had drawn additional sellers into the market and momentum slowed," it said Friday. "A utility selected a preferred supplier for delivery of less than 1 million pounds U3O8 over a five-year period," TradeTech said. TradeTech reported Friday its weekly and daily spot prices for uranium were $45/lb U3O8. TradeTech lowered its daily spot price by 25 cents to $44.75/lb Monday. UxC on Monday also raised its weekly spot price to $44.75/lb U3O8 from $43.50 December 7. The bulk of U3O8 purchases last week were made by a Japanese and a US trading company, and a financial entity, other market analysts said Monday. UxC reported that around 1 million lb of U3O8 were traded in nine transactions last week. Prices peaked at $45.50/lb on December 13, then ebbed to $44.75 on Monday, it said. The price increase since early December "likely had more to do with pedestrian reasons such as covering short positions, speculating on further price increases, and in some cases, traders trying to establish a net long position," UxC said. "If this is the case it would mean that the price increase may be self-limiting to a certain degree." UxC's broker average price, or BAP, on Monday was $44.63/lb, up $1.13 from $43.50 December 10. The BAP bid-offer spread Monday was $44.13-$45-13. UxC notes that the BAP is based on price information from Evolution Markets and Armajaro Securities. The Platts NuclearFuel range for the week was $42.50-$46.50/lb.--Jim Ostroff, james_ostroff@platts.com --Edited by Jason Lindquist, jason_lindquist@platts.com