From "The Year In Platinum, Number 2, December 1998
"1998: Investors Seek "Safe Haven" In Precious Metals"
Palladium
Being a member of the platinum group metals and having some physical similarities to platinum,
palladium is considered a sister metal to platinum. In some applications, particularly autocatalysts,
they are competitors in meeting the challenge of reducing harmful auto emissions. Engineers often
make tradeoffs between platinum and palladium when determining loadings for autocats, and due
to lower costs for palladium, some auto manufacturers have even developed a palladium-only
autocatalyst. The economics for this changed, however when the price of palladium at one point
closed higher than the price of platinum. Palladium's gains were partially caused by growing
demand in the multi-layer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) sector and auto sector, and even more so by
the irregularity of Russian supply. Russia supplies roughly 70% of the world's palladium, so the
effects of supply disruption are even more starkly reflected in palladium prices. In the late 1990s,
Palladium's price increase from around the $130 level to the upper $200s was hoped, by many
industrial consumers of that metal, to be an aberration. But 1998 proved that this higher price level
may be persistent, particularly in the light of Johnson Matthey's predictions for continuing
shortfalls in supply.
__________
Let's hope 1999 is a better year for HLM (looking forward to
the planned drill program on Tib Lake). The market has
certainly improved since the tax loss selling ended.
DRT |
