Uranium Supply Imbalance to Drive M&As on Asian Build

Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- International mergers and acquisitions to gain access to uranium mines are set to rise as countries seek to strengthen fuel security to power new nuclear reactors, Nomura International said in a report.

“The key feature of worldwide uranium resource distribution is that a couple of countries own most of the world’s uranium resources,” Nomura International (HK) Ltd. analyst Ivan Lee said in a report yesterday. “Some countries with a large amount of nuclear power capacity are not endowed with rich uranium resources.”

About 200 gigawatts of atomic capacity are planned or under construction globally, and China, India, Russia and South Korea are set to be the main drivers of uranium demand growth, according to the report. Utilities will be forced to compete for supplies from the few countries with substantial reserves, led by Australia, Kazakhstan and Canada, which collectively supply 60 percent of the world’s uranium, Lee said.

Kazakhstan, holding 15 percent of global reserves, has attracted investments from China, Canada, Russia and France, according to the report.

Kazatomprom, Kazakhstan’s state-run nuclear company, and China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group Co. last year opened a uranium mine at the Irkok deposit in the central Asian nation’s south. China is competing for supplies with the U.S., France and Japan, the three biggest nuclear power generators, which make up over 58 percent of the world’s uranium demand.

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