nuclear-news

Atmosphere of gloom about the future of the uranium industry

[Cameco] now finds itself selling some of its output below the cost of production.

China continues to review approvals for new reactors amid concerns about safety

Uranium outlook bleak, Rebound two years off estimates BLOOMBERG NEWS SEPTEMBER 20, 2012 Uranium’s rebound from the Fukushima nuclear accident may take one or two years longer than analysts estimated, prolonging the languishing recovery of Cameco, whose stock price has lost half its value since the March 2011 tragedy.

Just a month before the tsunami struck, shares were trading at $42.39. Wednesday they closed at $21.01.

The price of uranium for immediate delivery declined to $47 a pound as of Sept. 17, its lowest in two years, according to Ux Consulting, a Roswell, Ga.-based uranium information provider.

BHP Billiton Ltd. and Paladin Energy Ltd. have slowed or deferred development this year of some projects to produce the raw material in nuclear reactor fuel……

Cameco bought uranium trader Nukem Energy GmbH for $131.5 million in May and in June acquired Areva Resources Canada Inc.’s 30 per cent interest in the Millennium project in northern Saskatchewan in June for $150 million.
Yet despite the company’s optimism, it now finds itself selling some of its output below the cost of production.

The world’s third-largest uranium producer said in July that its Kintyre uranium project in Australia would need a $67 uranium price to be economical…….
Stockpiles in Japan and Germany are keeping prices low and causing
mining companies to defer new development.

Japan will end the use of atomic power by the 2030s, the government
said Sept. 14, and Germany’s government has also decided to phase out
nuclear energy. China continues to review approvals for new reactors amid concerns about safety, Heenal Patel, a London-based energy
analyst with Bloomberg Industries, said Tuesday.

“Japanese and German inventories and displaced supply would result in
no net new demand until after 2015,” Neff said, citing a January study
his group did.

The new target for a return to uranium demand is 2016 or 2017, Neff said.

September 21, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs, Uranium