Commodities | Feb 15 2007
By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck
China National Nuclear Corp’s English website doesn’t mention anything about it so we’ll have to trust the journalists at the local Xinhua press agency to report that the state controlled company has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Sinosteel Corp to “jointly invest and explore overseas for uranium resources”.
According to Xinhua, CNNC has posted a statement about this on its website, but as said above nothing is to be found on the English version of CNNC’s corporate website (sorry, we don’t speak Chinese).
Xinhua reports the deal is aimed at ensuring a steady supply of uranium for the country’s growing nuclear power sector and follows a similar agreement with conglomerate the CITIC Group.
CNNC is China’s largest nuclear power plant construction firm. The company currently operates three commercial nuclear power plants at Qinshan, Daya Bay and Ling’ao.
Xinhua also reports that the Chinese government is aiming to boost the country’s nuclear power sector to avoid future power shortages. China is believed to generate circa 2.3% of its total energy needs from nuclear plants. This is scheduled to increase to 4% by 2020. If this goal would be achieved, the press agency reports, it would make China the world’s fastest developer of atomic energy.
The latest update on the U3O4 spot price by Ux Consulting has left the price at US$75 per pound, unchanged from the previous week.