Because uranium prices are exploding
Uranium prices have risen to their highest levels since 2015, also due to large purchases by a single investment fund. Here are all the details
Like those of many other commodities, the prices of uranium – the main fuel of nuclear fission reactors – have also grown a lot in recent times, to their highest levels since 2015.
THE ROLE OF SPROTT
This increase, Bloomberg explains, is partly due to the activities of a single investment firm specializing in the metals market. This is the Canadian Sprott, which in recent months has launched the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust, described as "the largest fund on physical uranium": today it has reached the value of 1 billion dollars.
THE POST ON TWITTER
For some time, Sprott has started publishing posts on Twitter in which he communicates the physical quantities of uranium he buys. In the latest update, for example, the company says it has added 850,000 pounds of uranium to its assets in a single day.
Sprott Physical Uranium Trust is back at it with 850,000 pounds of physical uranium added today! #SPUT #UraniumStacking #Uranium # U3O8 #Nuclear #lowcarbon $ U.UN $ UU
For more information & disclosures, please visit https://t.co/PcaG53VfN5 pic.twitter.com/Ec3DW6SuSV
– Sprott Asset Management (@Sprott) September 7, 2021
24 MILLION POUNDS ACCUMULATED
Sprott has so far accumulated more than 24 million pounds of uranium. This is a very significant volume, considering that the total volume of uranium on the spot market recorded in the whole of 2020 was 92.2 million pounds: the estimate is from Yellow Cake, an investment company focused on this metal.
PRICES INTENDED TO RISE?
It is possible that uranium prices will rise again – not because of Sprott, but because of the bullish general picture.
Higher prices, among other things, will make it possible to stimulate the production of the metal, which is required by energy companies. Kazakh company Kazatomprom, the largest uranium extractor in the world, had announced that it would limit its output until 2023 to restrict the supply of the raw material on the market.
THE PRICES OF ENERGY
Energy prices are on the rise in many parts of the world – including in Europe and Italy – following the recovery in demand compared to the "hard" lockdown months of last year, but also due to problems on the offering. Fuel prices for power plants, such as natural gas or coal, are hitting new highs, making it more expensive to power industries and keep the lights on in homes.
THE PRICES OF URANIUM
The prices of uranium futures contracts rose 15 percent on the NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange), the international reference market for metals and energy last week – the largest weekly increase of the past ten. years, before the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster brought down demand.
Bloomberg writes that uranium is trading at the highest levels of the last six years and shows no anticipatory signs of a decline in its value.
The Canadian company Cameco, one of the main suppliers of uranium in the world, benefited above all from this bullish trend: its shares have risen to the highest levels since 2014. On Tuesday, on the Toronto stock exchange, Cameco's shares rose more than 7 percent.
THE NUCLEAR IN THE ENERGY TRANSITION
Nuclear energy does not emit greenhouse gases and is not intermittent in generation such as wind and solar, which depend on the presence of wind and sun respectively. This makes it a potentially useful source for the decarbonisation of energy systems, also as a "companion" to renewables capable of guaranteeing stability to the electricity grid. However, nuclear energy is not always judged to be "clean" due to radioactive waste.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/prezzi-uranio-cosa-succede/ on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 13:35:08 +0000.