Sign of better things to come ? Cameco to supply China

IFandP reports Cameco Corp., the uranium giant will supply large amounts of uranium to China for over a period of 10 years.

According to Thomas Neff, a physicist and uranium-industry analyst at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, China could purchase around 5000t this year – double its annual consumption – as it builds stockpiles for new reactors. “China’s demand is insatiable,” said Dave Dai, an analyst at the Daiwa Institute of Research in Hong Kong. “They will have to take almost whatever is available.”

The World Nuclear Association expects China’s uranium consumption to rise to 20,000tpa by 2020, equivalent to just under 40 per cent of last year’s 50,572t global output. The country envisages a power output of 85GW, nine times its current capacity, as it plans at least 60 new reactors by 2020. Loading a new reactor requires around 400t of uranium.

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