Material Insights · Understanding the Material World

Uranium: Trading

A secretive market of long-term contracts

What this tab covers How and where it is bought and sold: who buys and sells, exchanges and benchmarks, contract types, the big trading houses and how prices are discovered.

Uranium has no deep futures market. Most is sold under long-term contracts between miners and utilities, with base-escalated or market-related prices. Spot and term prices are assessed by specialist reporters such as UxC and TradeTech, and CME lists a small cash-settled U3O8 future based on UxC. Physical funds such as Sprott Physical Uranium Trust and Yellow Cake plc buy and store U3O8, adding a financial layer to a thin spot market. Conversion and enrichment are bought separately, enrichment in separative work units (SWU).

Where it is bought (buyers)

  • Nuclear utilities in the US, France, China, Korea, Japan and India buy U3O8, conversion, enrichment and fabrication separately or as fuel bundles
  • Financial vehicles (Sprott Physical Uranium Trust, Yellow Cake plc) buy and hold physical U3O8
  • India's Department of Atomic Energy buys under government-to-government arrangements for safeguarded reactors

Where it is sold (sellers)

  • Kazatomprom, Cameco, Orano, Uranium One, CGN, CNNC and Navoiyuran sell from Kazakhstan, Canada, Namibia, Uzbekistan and Niger
  • Namibia supplied 71% and Niger 19% of world uranium ore and concentrate exports by value in 2023 (UN Comtrade, HS 261210); most trade in refined forms is recorded under other codes
  • Converters and enrichers (Cameco, Orano, Urenco, Rosatom TENEX, CNNC) sell services

Exchanges and benchmarks

VenueContractNotes
CME Group (NYMEX)UxC Uranium U3O8 futures, 250 lbCash-settled on the UxC month-end spot price; thinly traded
Over-the-counterSpot and term U3O8 deliveries at converters (Cameco, Orano, ConverDyn sites)Most physical trade is bilateral, through brokers

Contract types

  • Multi-year long-term contracts with base-escalated or market-related pricing, often with floors and ceilings
  • Spot contracts for delivery within a year
  • Book transfers of U3O8 held at conversion facilities
  • Separate contracts for conversion, enrichment (SWU) and fabrication

Top trading houses

  • Traxys
  • Curzon Resources
  • brokers Evolution Markets and Numerco

How prices are discovered

  • UxC and TradeTech spot and long-term price indicators
  • Cameco month-end publication of those indicators
  • S&P Global Commodity Insights spot assessments (used by the Energy Institute)