Donald Trump wrote to Congressional leaders last week to explain why he had rejected the Department of Commerce’s recommendation to go ahead with section 232 intervention into the US uranium production market, suggesting “A fuller analysis of national security considerations with respect to the entire nuclear fuel supply chain is necessary at this time”.
Presumably this means the section 232 recommendation is not yet dead and buried, but it could be argued that Trump had no choice but to establish a Working Group to examine the whole nuclear fuel cycle given any move to support US uranium miners would impact on US nuclear power generators and vice versa.
But what it does mean is a uranium market which had to wait so long to learn of Trump’s 232 decision is again back in waiting mode. And it’s summer vacation time in the northern hemisphere.
Hence last week saw no transactions reported in the uranium spot or term markets. Not one.
Industry consultant TradeTech’s weekly spot price indicator remains unchanged at US$25.25/lb, while term market prices remain unchanged at US$28.50/lb (mid) and US$31.00/lb (long).
The two transactions reported in the spot market late the week before means August has seen a total of two transactions to date compared to an August average of 15 transactions totalling 2.7mlbs U3O8 equivalent.
It’s going to be a long summer.
