Uranium term markets await Chinese entry

Chinese buyers will likely start entering into long-term supply contracts for uranium “in the near term”, a senior executive at Canadian producer Cameco has said. Long-term contracts usually call for deliveries to begin more than two years after the contract is finalized, and use a number of pricing formulas, including fixed prices adjusted by inflation indices, and market-linked prices.

China has done some very limited purchasing in the long-term markets, but the focus has been on securing the nuclear fuel for the initial cores that are being built and started up in the country. “They just haven’t been active in signing significant volumes of long-term contracts. But I would expect that   would change over here in the near term,” he said. On the spot market, Cameco expects to see Chinese buyers purchase between five and six million tons of uranium this year.