$90/lb-$100/lb uranium price outlook, says researcher
Published: 18 Jan 08 - 0:00 A flat uranium spot price outlook of $90/lb-to-$100/lb is indicated for the next few months, Australian equity research company Resource Capital Research (RCR) says.
Current spot is around $90/lb, up from a 2007 low of $75/lb and down from 2007 high of $138/lb, with the industry-average long-term price firm at $95/lb.
Though a price-bounce to $93/lb off a low of $75/lb, buoyed the sector, upside price momentum has not returned to levels seen in 2007.
The quarterly RCR report to December notes market expectations of $125/lb by September, however, emphasising that uranium funds ¬- representing a significant percentage of the annual spot market volume of the 18-million pounds to 28-million pounds and thought to hold 20-million pounds of U3O8 - remain important.
"Recent uranium company performance has been driven largely by company specific news flow," RCR MD John Wilson notes.
RCR lists spot market pullback drivers as traditional northern hemisphere summer slowdown, investment fund inventory sales and prior near-demand-need covering by utilities.
The European Union has affirmed nuclear power as "indispensable" and strong increasing demand for new nuclear power reactors remains, especially from China, US, Russia, Ukraine and India.
Nuclear power reactors planned and proposed increased from 222 to 316 in the ten months to October 2007, well up on the 153 of May 2006.
China now has 116, up from 63 in January 2007, and the US 32, up from 23, with 439 nuclear power reactors in operation worldwide.
Global nuclear power generation is forecast to rise to between 447 GWe and 379 GWe by 2030, up from 370 GWe currently. |