Nuclear fuel enrichment company Urenco, jointly owned by the German, British and Dutch governments, has reported a four percent drop in full-year core earnings because customer demand has slowed.
The UK-based company, which its owners are looking to partly sell, saw 2013 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fall to 968 million euros (EUR) (1.3 billion US dollars) from EUR 1.01 billion the previous year.
Revenue fell to EUR 1.52 billion from a record EUR 1.60 billion in 2012, the company said.
Urenco group chief executive officer Helmut Engelbrecht said 2013 remained “challenging” in some of the company’s traditional markets. Reduced demand led to a slowdown of the market and increased worldwide inventories valued at EUR 353.2 million.
But Mr Engelbrecht said Urenco retained its 31 percent share of the world market for uranium enrichment services, underlining its position as a market leader. “Following our record year in 2012, we met our revenue expectations in 2013,” he said.
The company said its enrichment facility in the US enables it to provide a domestic enrichment service to North American customers. The New Mexico facility is now the only commercial operational enrichment facility in the US.