Earnings more than doubled year-over-year at Centrus, Bethesda, Md., in the second quarter, during which the company’s flagship uranium brokerage business almost tripled, according to a press release.
The company’s quarterly earnings call was scheduled for Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. Centrus often has what it sometimes calls lumpy quarters, where uranium fuel orders from U.S. utilities abruptly spike or slack, creating irregular booms and busts in the company’s earnings.
Companywide net earnings for the second quarter were $30.6 million, or $1.89 a share, up from $12.7 million, or $0.83 a share, in the year-ago quarter, Centrus said in its release. Quarterly revenue was $189 million, up year-over-year from $98.4 million.
Separative work units revenue, which accounts for uranium fuel orders from U.S. nuclear plant operators, rose to almost $140 million from about $48 million a year ago. Centrus fulfills these orders with imported Russian uranium.
During the second quarter of 2024, President Joe Biden (D) enacted a law that would ban imports of Russian uranium, Centrus’ bread and butter, by Jan. 1 2028. The company also acquired a waiver to continue importing Russian uranium during the quarter, seemingly protecting the flagship separative work units business at least through 2025.
In other business areas, technical solutions revenue rose to almost $19.5 million in the quarter from just under $11 million a year ago, Centrus said. The segment is where the company bookkeeps the results of a high assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) enrichment cascade it built for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science at the Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio.
The HALEU cascade is built on the company’s AC100M technology, which could be the foundation of a future defense uranium enrichment plant that could be used for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s defense work.
In the meantime, Centrus is producing HALEU for civilian programs within the Office of Science under a contract that with options is worth $1 billion over 10 years and requires Centrus to deliver 900 kilograms to DOE in most of the contract’s option years. So far, Centrus said it has delivered 179 kilograms of HALEU.
Also in its earnings press release, Centrus said it is bidding on separate HALEU deconversion and enrichment work for DOE.
“We are vigorously competing for this funding as we believe it represents a historic opportunity to restore America’s nuclear fuel supply chain with U.S. technology built by American workers,” Amir Vexler, president and CEO of Centrus, said in an earnings press release.
Last, uranium revenue, representing sales of natural uranium, did poorer in the 2024 quarter than the year-ago, Centrus said. Uranium revenue decreased to $29.9 million, down from $39.5 million year-over-year. Uranium prices were higher in the quarter, Centrus said, but the company sold less of it.
