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Uranium Marketing Annual Report

With Data for 2011  |  Release Date:  May 2, 2012  |  Next Release Date: May 2013 | full report

Previous uranium marketing annual reports

Uranium purchases and prices

Owners and operators of U.S. civilian nuclear power reactors (“civilian owner/operators” or “COOs”) purchased a total of 55 million pounds U3O8e (equivalent) of deliveries from U.S. suppliers and foreign suppliers during 2011, at a weighted-average price of $55.64 per pound U3O8e. The 2011 total of 55 million pounds U3O8e increased 18 percent compared with the 2010 total of 47 million pounds U3O8e. (Uranium quantities are expressed in the unit of measure U3O8e(equivalent). U3O8e is uranium oxide (or uranium concentrate) and the equivalent uranium-component of hexafluoride (UF6) and enriched uranium.)

Nine percent of the U3O8e delivered in 2011 was U.S.-origin uranium at a weighted-average price of $52.12 per pound. Foreign-origin uranium accounted for the remaining 91 percent of deliveries at a weighted-average price of $55.98 per pound. Australian-origin and Canadian-origin uranium together accounted for 31 percent of the 55 million pounds. Uranium originating in Kazakhstan, Russia and Uzbekistan accounted for 40 percent and the remaining 20 percent originated from Brazil, China, Malawi, Namibia, Niger, South Africa, and Ukraine. Owners and operators of U.S. civilian nuclear power reactors purchased uranium for 2011 deliveries from 32 sellers, up from the 23 sellers in 2010.

COOs purchased uranium of three material types. Uranium concentrate was 62 percent of the deliveries in 2011; natural and enriched UF6 were 38 percent. During 2011, 22 percent of the uranium was purchased under spot contracts at a weighted-average price of $54.69 per pound. The remaining 78 percent was purchased under long-term contracts at a weighted-average price of $55.90 per pound. Spot contracts are contracts with a one-time uranium delivery (usually) for the entire contract and the delivery is to occur within one year of contract execution (signed date). Long-term contracts are contracts with one or more uranium deliveries to occur after a year following the contract execution (signed date) and as such may reflect some agreements of short and medium terms as well as longer term.

New and future uranium contracts

In 2011, COOs signed 79 new purchase contracts with deliveries in 2011 of 10 million pounds U3O8e at a weighted-average price of $56.07 per pound. Seventy-seven were new spot contracts and two were new long-term contracts.

COOs report minimum and maximum quantities of future deliveries under contract, to allow for the option of either increasing or decreasing quantities. As of the end of 2011, the maximum uranium deliveries for 2012 through 2021 under existing purchase contracts for COOs totaled 252 million pounds U3O8e. Also as of the end of 2011, unfilled uranium market requirements for 2012 through 2021 totaled 255 million pounds U3O8e. These contracted deliveries and unfilled market requirements combined represent the maximum anticipated market requirements of 507 million pounds U3O8e over the ten-year period for COOs. For the years 2012 through 2014, the maximum anticipated market requirements is 19 million pounds less than enrichment feed deliveries for the same period.

Uranium feed, enrichment services, uranium loaded

In 2011, COOs delivered 51 million pounds U3O8e of natural uranium feed to U.S. and foreign enrichers. Fifty-nine percent of the feed was delivered to U.S. enrichment suppliers and the remaining 41 percent was delivered to foreign enrichment suppliers. Fifteen million separative work units (SWU) were purchased under enrichment services contracts from 9 sellers in 2011, up from the 7 sellers in 2010. The average price paid by the COOs for the 15 million SWU was $136.12 per SWU in 2011, compared with the 2010 average price of $136.14 per SWU. In 2011, the U.S.-origin SWU share was 16 percent and foreign-origin SWU accounted for the remaining 84 percent. Russian-origin SWU were 36 percent of the total. China, France, Germany, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom had an aggregate share of 48 percent.

Uranium in fuel assemblies loaded into U.S. civilian nuclear power reactors during 2011 contained 52 million pounds U3O8e, compared with 44 million pounds U3O8e loaded during 2010. Eight percent of the uranium loaded during 2011 was U.S.-origin uranium, and 92 percent was foreign-origin uranium.

Uranium foreign purchases/sales and inventories

U.S. suppliers (brokers, converters, enrichers, fabricators, producers, and traders) and COOs purchase uranium each year from foreign suppliers. Foreign purchases totaled 54 million pounds U3O8e in 2011, and the weighted-average price was $54.00 per pound U3O8e. Also, U.S. suppliers and COOs sold uranium to foreign suppliers. Foreign sales totaled 17 million pounds U3O8e in 2011, and the weighted-average price was $49.05 per pound U3O8e.


Year-end commercial uranium inventories represent ownership of uranium in different stages of the nuclear fuel cycle (in-process for conversion, enrichment, or fabrication) at domestic or foreign nuclear fuel facilities. Total U.S. commercial inventories (including inventories owned by COOs, U.S. brokers, converter, enrichers, fabricators, producers, and traders) was 114 million pounds U3O8e as of the end of 2011. Commercial uranium inventories owned at the end of 2011 by COOs totaled 89 million pounds U3O8e, an increase of 3 percent from year-end 2010. Uranium inventories owned by U.S. brokers and traders were 9 million pounds U3O8e. U.S. converter, enrichers, fabricators and producers owned 15 million pounds U3O8e of inventories at the end of 2011.

Data Tables

Summary

Table S1a. Uranium Purchased by Owners and Operators of U.S. Civilian Nuclear Power Reactors, 1994-2011 (Table S1a and Figures S1 and S2)    
Table S1b. Weighted-Average Price of Uranium Purchased by Owners and Operators of U.S. Civilian Nuclear Power Reactors, 1994-2011 (Table S1b and Figures S1 and S2)    
Table S2. Uranium Feed Deliveries, Enrichment Services, and Uranium Loaded by Owners and Operators of U.S. Civilian Nuclear Power Reactors, 1994-2011 (Table S2 and Figures S3 and S4)    
Table S3a. Foreign Purchases, Foreign Sales, and Uranium Inventories Owned by U.S. Suppliers and Owners and Operators of U.S. Civilian Nuclear Power Reactors, 1994-2011 (Table S3a and Figures S5 and S6)    
Table S3b. Weighted-Average Price of Foreign Purchases and Foreign Sales by U.S. Suppliers and Owners and Operators of U.S. Civilian Nuclear Power Reactors, 1994-2011 (Table S3b and Figures S5 and S6)    

Uranium Purchased
Table 1. by Supplier (Table 1 and Figures 1 and 2)    
Table 2. by Origin (Table 2 and Figures 3 and 4)    
Table 3. by Origin Country (Table 3 and Figure 5)    
Table 4. by Origin and Material Type (Table 4 and Figure 6)    

Price Mechanisms, Distributions and Contract Types
Table 5. by Pricing Mechanisms (Table 5 and Figure 7)    
Table 6a. by Price and Distributed by Quantity (Tables 6a)    
Table 6b. by Price and Distributed by Purchaser (Tables 6b)    
Table 7. by Contract Type (Table 7)    

New Purchases
Table 8. Contracts Signed in 2011 (Table 8)    
Table 9. Signed in 2011, by Delivery Year,
2012-2021 (Table 9 and Figure 8)		    

Future Deliveries

Table 10. In Effect at the End 2011 (Table 10 and Figure 9)    
Table 11. Unfilled Requirements (Table 11 and Figure 10)    
Table 12. Maximum Anticipated Market Requirements (Table 12 and Figure 11)    

Feed for Enrichment

Table 13. by Enrichment Country (Table 13 and Figure 12)    
Table 14. by Origin Country (Table 14 and Figure 13)    
Table 15. Shipments to Enrichment Suppliers, 2012-2021 (Table 15 and Figure 14)    

SWU

Table 16. Enrichment Services by Origin Country (Table 16 and Figure 15)    
Table 17. Enrichment Services by Contract Type (Table 17)    

Loaded Uranium

Table 18. in Fuel Assemblies (Table 18 and Figure 16)    

Foreign Purchases and Sales

Table 19. Foreign Purchases (Table 19 and Figure 17)    
Table 20. U.S. Broker and Trader Purchases (Table 20 and Figure 18)    
Table 21. Foreign Sales (Table 21 and Figure 19)    

Commercial Inventories

Table 22. Natural and Enriched (Table 22 and Figures 20 and 21)    
Table 23. by Owner (Table 23 and Figure 22)    

Sellers

Table 24. of Uranium    
Table 25. of Enrichment Services    

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