Urenco: Revenue surge for government-backed uranium transport group’s UK arm

Revenue at the UK arm of Urenco, a company that transports uranium overseas, surged by almost £100m during 2023.

Newly-filed accounts for Urenco UK Ltd, which is based in Cheshire, show its revenues jumped from £381.1m to £470.7m in the 12 months.

The results published on Companies House also reveal the firm’s income before tax increased from £97.8m to £148.4m.

The wider Urenco Group is owned by the UK government, Dutch government and E.ON and RWE. As well as its UK operations, it has uranium enrichment plants in Germany, the Netherlands and the United States.

For 2023, the group’s revenue increased from €1.7bn to €1.9bn while its EBITDA also rose from €824.6m to €886.7m.

A statement signed off by the board said: “In 2022, the developments in Ukraine changed our market conditions significantly and, as a result, Urenco has refreshed our strategy to ensure the continued supply of enriched uranium to existing and new customers through the introduction of key plant lifetime and capacity extension initiatives.

“We have assessed our options to meet our capacity targets and in 2023 a plat lifetime extension programme commenced to help us to achieve these targets.

“The strategic initiatives are built into the Urenco UK business plan and we are confident that this will help support the Urenco Group in sustaining its position as a global leader in enrichment services and enable expansion of our high-tech capabilities to more broadly serve the nuclear industry.

“The group and the company continue to engage in positive interactions with employees, explaining the need for change in an open and transparent way.”

During the year the average number of people employed by Urenco UK increased from 434 to 488.

The results come after Urenco UK was told it must improve the safety of its operations by industry watchdog the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR).

The organisation said that the company had not made proper safety checks or made sure its shipments were correctly approved.

Urenco UK has until the end of May to comply with the improvement notice.