Uranium price falls

While thermal coal has shown a striking surge, natural gas has rebounded and crude oil is up more than 70% from a 13-year low in January 2016, uranium has been consistently weak this year.

The price of U3O8 is down 45% in 2016, and the average price fell 4.8% last week, stopping at $ 18.75 a pound. Current levels are the lowest for uranium since mid-2004. Today's price can also be compared to the all-time high of almost $ 140 per pound, reached in June 2007. In the long term, the price will languish at about $ 36 per ton.

The weakness of uranium persists despite strong fundamentals associated with reactors built in recent years - 66 in total, mostly in China. Therefore, global uranium consumption is expected to increase by one fifth from today's levels. Currently, approximately 173 million pounds of uranium per year are needed to power more than 400 reactors around the world.