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Gold/Mining/Energy : North American Palladium(AMEX:PAL)- PGM Producer -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bruce Robbins who wrote (915)	3/23/2001 11:27:42 AM
From: Bruce Robbins	Respond to of 976

From Platt's: platts.com London (Platts)--22Mar2001 Platinum and palladium prices barely moved in reaction to news Thursday that Honda would be cutting back between 50-70% of platinum, palladium and rhodium use in its new catalytic exhaust control systems. Industry analysts said the statement was misleading in that it did not explain on what basis the percentage change had actually been calculated from. "With the very strict emission standards set in Japan, carmakers are under pressure to develop new, more efficient systems," said one industry insider. "The newer systems inevitably require higher percentage levels of PGMs, so I believe that the percentage cut Honda talks about is based on the amounts they originally thought would be required in the new converters--not, as it might suggest, as 50-70% less than current consumption," he said. "It is not feasible that they would be using 50% less than before," he added. General Motors recently announced that it planned to cut palladium content by 30-40% in catalytic converters by increasing platinum content, or switching technology. "It's part of an ongoing trend," said one market analyst. "When we look at global consumption figures we allow for cost efficiency. On the flip side we have to remember that tightening emmission standards require greater PGM usage. The two tend to balance out," he added. Honda said the new device would be installed for the first time on a new version of the Honda StepWGN minivan to be introduced in Japan in April and will be applied to other Honda vehicles later. Platinum saw an afternoon fix at $578/oz and palladium at $774/oz. (Ends)