Two large listed funds investing in uranium have bought 22,000 tons (ton) of uranium over the past two years, more than a quarter of the world’s annual demand, the economist pointed out.
Ukraine, which has relied on Russia to supply uranium to 15 nuclear power plants in the country, hurriedly signed a 12-year supply contract with Canada, an unusual long-term contract.
In addition, European countries such as Eastern Europe and Finland, where Russian-made nuclear power plants that can only be supplied with fuel, have also struggled to find other uranium suppliers.
Other world’s uranium supply disruptions also continued.
A military coup in the uranium-mining country of Niger in July put about 4% of the world’s supply from uranium mines at risk.
Also, French state-owned company Orano suspended uranium raw mining processing due to a shortage of key chemicals.
In Kazakhstan, the largest supplier cut supply from earlier expectations due to logistical challenges, while Canada’s largest supplier lowered its output forecast by 9% as operations at two mines were disrupted
Considering this situation, the economist predicted that the supplier advantage in the global uranium market since 2018 will continue until next year.
However, considering that major nuclear power plants have a large stockpile of uranium, it will take more than four years to really run out of nuclear fuel, there is little possibility of an overall supply shortage.
In addition, fuel rods currently used in nuclear power plants can be used for another one to three years, and additional extension for another year or so can be used.
Therefore, the media predicted that global uranium prices are most likely to remain high for the next few years and then turn back into a consumer advantage in the mid-2020s.
Also, considering that the cost of nuclear fuel is only 10% of the cost of operating nuclear power plants and that raw materials such as uranium account for less than half of the unit price of nuclear fuel, the economist added that the strong price of uranium will have little direct impact on consumers’ electricity bills.