nuclear-news

Uranium miners maintain they are optimistic about prices in the coming years, as demand is expected to increase and outstrip supply. But that doesn’t help anyone in the short term, while Fukushima still looms large over the market. Scotiabank analyst Ben Isaacson said demand upside is “unlikely to stabilize” the uranium market this year, even with some Japanese reactor restarts, an acceleration of reactor starts in China and inventory building.

Instead, he said there has to be a response on the supply side, both from existing and planned mines.

“The challenge will be to figure out when/where the next supply cuts will come from,” he said in a note.

Mr. Isaacson noted that a lot of global production is inelastic to price moves, either because it is low cost, locked into contracts or politically important. He did not speculate on where the cuts will come from.

Another complication is that uranium enrichment capacity continues to expand globally. He said a glut of enriched supply could cause marginal demand for uranium to slow down…….http://business.financialpost.com/2014/05/21/uranium-supply-cuts-needed-as-spot-price-continues-to-tumble/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FP_TopStories+%28Financial+Post+-+Top+Stories%29