ASX uranium plays surge as supply and demand diverge
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The news: Australian-listed uranium and nuclear technology plays were outperforming in early trade on Monday, after weakened production expectations and a potential US ban on Russian nuclear fuel sent uranium prices higher.
The numbers: Boss Energy was up 9% before 11:00am AEDT, while Paladin and Deep Yellow gained about 7.8% by the same time. All three companies are headquartered in Perth. Uranium enrichment technology company Silex Systems also gained 7.3%, continuing its tear after setting intentions to contribute to US' burgeoning high assay low enriched uranium (HALEU) industry. The spot price of uranium is at its highest levels 2007, rapidly approaching the USD100 level.
The context: The US Department of Energy last week announced plans to back the production of the higher grade HALEU nuclear fuel, currently only commercially produced by Russia. The US House of Representatives has passed a bill to ban Russian uranium imports, but it has not yet been passed by the Senate, Reuters reports. On the supply side, the London-listed, Kazakhstan-controlled Kazatomprom announced incoming production shortfalls due to sulfuric acid shortages, according to Reuters. Kazatomprom is the world's largest uranium producer.
