Washington (Platts)--1Sep2010/545 am EDT/945 GMT

The spot market price of uranium seesawed over the past week, dropping by more than $2 a pound U3O8 to below $44/lb, but then rebounding to about $45/lb by midday Tuesday, according to sources. Those sources said, however, that it was unclear whether the price would continue to rise. Both supply and demand "is thin," said one of the sources, and thus small volumes can have a significant impact on the price. TradeTech on August 27 dropped its price to $44/lb, down $2.25/lb from its August 20 price. Ux Consulting late Monday dropped its price to $45/lb from August 23's $46/lb. TradeTech said the sharp drop "was triggered early in the week by one seller eager to attract buyers into the market. However, the initial drop in offer prices failed to attract significant buying interest and prices fell to their lowest point by mid-week, but showed slight firming as the week came to a close and discretionary buying interest emerged." TradeTech will publish its end-of-the month spot price later Tuesday. Ux said all of the five transactions it was aware of over the past week occurred at prices lower than $45/lb. But Ux said $45/lb was the most competitive offer it was aware of Monday. "A key question now," it said, "is whether sellers have placed all of their material for now or whether further selling is in order, which could mean further downward pressure on the price." Taiwan Power, which bought 100,000 lb U3O8 equivalent, but then asked sellers to submit new bids for a second lot of 200,000 lb U3O8 equivalent, is said to have selected a supplier. The winning offer, understood to have been submitted by Itochu, is likely to have been below $45/lb, sources said. --Mike Knapik, newsdesk@platts.com Similar stories appear in NuclearFuel. See more information at http://www.platts.com/Products.aspx?xmlFile=nuclearfuel.xml