Centrus Energy 's Comment on Competition and Industry Peers
We estimate that the enrichment industry market is currently about 50 million
SWU per year. Our global market share is approximately 4 percent. Global LEU suppliers
compete in the highly competitive industry primarily in terms of price and secondarily
on reliability of supply and customer service. The three largest LEU suppliers
comprise an estimated 90 percent of market share combined:
Rosatom, a Russian government entity, which sells LEU through its wholly owned
subsidiary TENEX;
Urenco, a consortium of companies owned or controlled by the British and Dutch
governments and by two German utilities; and
Areva, a company largely owned by the French government.
Urenco reported installed capacity at its European and U.S. enrichment facilities
of 19.1 million SWU per year at the end of 2015. Urenco has announced plans
to continue a slow expansion at its Urenco USA facility with a target of adding
an additional 1 million SWU by 2022.
Areva’s gas centrifuge enrichment plant in France began commercial operations
in 2011 and more than 96% of the plant’s nominal capacity of 7.5 million
SWU was reported to be in service at the end of 2015. Areva has announced that
it will reach its full capacity of 7.5 million SWU per year by the end of 2016.
In October 2011, the NRC issued an operating license to Areva for the Eagle
Rock plant near Idaho Falls, Idaho. Areva’s original plan called for initial
production in 2014 but Areva has placed its plans for the Eagle Rock plant on
hold. Furthermore, under a new strategic plan, Areva suspended planned capacity
expansions for its domestic gas centrifuge plant beyond 7.5 million SWU.
The production capacity for Rosatom/TENEX is estimated by the World Nuclear
Association (“WNA”) to be approximately 27 million SWU per year.
Imports of LEU and other uranium products produced in the Russian Federation
are subject to the restrictions described below under Limitations on Imports
of LEU from Russia.
All of our current competitors are owned or controlled, in whole or in part,
by foreign governments. These competitors may make business decisions in both
domestic and international markets that are influenced by political or economic
policy considerations rather than exclusively by commercial considerations.
There are also producers of LEU in China, Japan and Brazil that primarily serve
a portion of their respective domestic markets. China is emerging as a growing
producer and has begun to supply limited quantities of LEU to foreign markets.
China’s commercial SWU production capacity is estimated to be in the range
of 4.5 to 4.8 million SWU per year at the end of 2015. Additional capacity is
also under construction at the existing enrichment plants, which is expected
to add an additional 3.0 million SWU per year by 2017, in order to meet Chinese
internal SWU requirements.
In addition, GE Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment (“GLE”) has an
agreement with Silex Systems Limited, an Australian company, to license Silex’s
laser enrichment technology. The NRC issued GLE a license in September 2012
for a proposed plant in Wilmington, North Carolina. More recently GLE has expressed
an interest in deploying enrichment capacity at the site of the Paducah GDP.
In recent quarters, sponsors of the GLE consortium have written off their investment
in the project, and the GLE project staff has been significantly reduced. All
GLE activities at the Oak Ridge, Tennessee facility have been shut down, but
work continues at the Wilmington Test Loop facility.
LEU may also be produced by down-blending government stockpiles of highly enriched
uranium. Governments control the timing and availability of highly enriched
uranium released for this purpose, and the release of this material to the market
could impact market conditions. Given the current oversupplied nuclear fuel
market, any additional LEU from down-blended highly enriched uranium released
into the market would have a negative effect on prices for LEU.
LEU that we supply to foreign customers is exported under the terms of international
agreements governing nuclear cooperation between the United States and the country
of destination or other entities, such as the European Union or the International
Atomic Energy Agency. The LEU supplied to us under the Russian Supply Agreement
is subject to the terms of cooperation agreements between the Russian Federation
and the country of destination or other entities.