Centrus sees strong growth in nuclear fuel sales
The company's revenues come from multi-year contracts with major utilities, often signed years in advance. The new sales contracts and commitments cover deliveries in North America, Asia, and Europe from 2021 through to 2027, with revenues to be recognised in the year of delivery.
The USD225 million total includes the more than USD100 million in contracts and commitments secured between November 2020 and the end of January 2021 that were disclosed in the Centrus' Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2020. In its 2020 Annual Report, Centrus said its order book of sales under contract in the low-enriched uranium (LEU) segment extends to 2030. As of 31 December, its order book was about USD960 million.
"The last 12 months has been the strongest period for new sales since 2015, with prices rising again and utilities coming back into the market to make multi-year orders," said Centrus President and CEO Daniel Poneman. "With these new sales, we're adding value into our long-term order book, broadening our customer base and strengthening our position as a trusted global nuclear fuel supplier."
Since 1998, Centrus has provided its utility customers with more than 1750 reactor years of fuel, which the company says is equivalent to 7 billion tonnes of coal.
Centrus, created in 2014 from the restructuring of US uranium enrichment company USEC, does not currently have any enrichment capacity of its own. It operated the American Centrifuge demonstration uranium enrichment plant in Ohio, and since its closure in 2016 has carried out engineering and testing work on US-origin uranium enrichment technology under contract to the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Although plans for a full-scale American Centrifuge Plant were shelved, Centrus and the DOE continue to preserve and advance the technology to support future national security and energy security needs.
Centrus is licensing and constructing a cascade of 16 AC100M centrifuges to demonstrate production of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) under a three year, USD115 million cost-shared contract signed in 2019 with the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy. The facility in Piketon, Ohio is expected to begin production early next year.
In March this year, Centrus announced net income of USD54.4 million in 2020 compared with a net loss of USD16.5 million in 2019. Revenue in 2020 increased 18% to USD247.2 million. Revenue from its LEU operations increased by USD21.1 million in 2020 compared with 2019, to USD190.5 million. Revenue from separative work units (SWU) increased by USD27.8 million in 2020 compared with 2019. The volume of SWU sales decreased 15%. Uranium revenue decreased by USD6.7 million in 2020 compared with 2019. The volume of uranium sales decreased 23% and the average uranium price billed to customers increased 10%.
