International uranium prices have risen more than 30 per cent so far this year, making it a “rare” goods in commodity markets. Some analysts believe that this year the global uranium market may usher in a brand-new landscape.
KazAtom Prom’s quarterly report this year shows uranium production in January-March period was 5,221 tons, slightly slipping from 5,294 tons in the same period in 2019. Cameco Canada, another uranium-producing giant, produced 2.1 million pounds in the first quarter, decreasing 12.5 percent from the same period in 2019. Mike Kozak, an analyst at investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, said uranium production is expected to fall by about 46 million pounds, or 35 percent, this year, based on the number of uranium mines that have been closed.
Although the rapid decline in uranium production in the short term has had an impact on uranium producers, the industry insiders believe that the pandemic will not have a greater negative impact on the global uranium market. Instead，it will bring benefits to some extent. Since after the outbreak of COVID-19, the world’s major uranium producers have reduced production, resulting in that the inventories have begun to decline, while the international uranium prices began to rise constantly, which has now reached $32.5/pound.
“This price rising is continuable,” said Orest Wowkodaw, an analyst at Scotiabank Canada，“In the view of current situations, it is likely to be a turning point of the uranium market in the last decade. “At the same time, there are concerns in the industry that due to changes in market supply and demand with decreasing uranium stocks and increasing uranium prices, probably some nuclear power companies would start to snap up uranium in the near future.”
