By Andrew Nelson

While anticipation of the upside from Japanese reactor restarts continued to slowly build, spot traders have decided to forge their own path. A path to lower prices, unfortunately.

While not as many as had been hoped, industry consultant TradeTech notes that four Japanese utilities have filed applications to restart 10 reactors that have been offline since the Fukushima accident. The problem is that it will take months before these reactors soak up surplus stocks already in hand.

In the meantime, spot demand is thin and very price sensitive, as has been the case for months. The problem is that once stubborn sellers, intent on waiting for the spot market to turn higher, still have bills to pay and last week a few of them buckled under the strain.

There were five deals concluded on the spot market last week, with 1.2 million pounds of U3O8 sold. Each and every sale was booked at a price lower than the prior week's finish, bringing TradeTechs' Weekly U3O8 Spot Price Indicator down US$1.30 to US$38.25/lb.

There is still a bit of demand in the pipeline that needs to be washed through, with one non-US utility having selected a preferred supplier of 650,000 pounds due in 2014. A second non-US utility is also looking for offers for multi-year deliveries starting this year.

There were two deals reported in the term market last week, both of them involving mid-term delivery. Current demand on the market is coming from two non-US utilities looking for a combined 2.4m pounds, with delivers starting this year.

TradeTech also reports there is another US utility looking at offers for nearly 1m pounds from 2017 onwards, while a number of US and non-US utilities are said to be looking at the long-term uranium market in the coming months.

Despite the signs of life, TradeTech's Mid-Term U3O8 Price Indicator was unchanged from US43.00/lb, while the Long-Term Price Indicator stayed put at US$57.00/lb.