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Palladium Prices Surge to 18-Year High
The price of palladium, a metal used in automotive catalytic converters, has topped $1,000 per ounce for the first time since 2001.
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The price of palladium, a metal used in automotive catalytic converters, has topped $1,000 per ounce for the first time since 2001.
The metal surpassed the price of platinum, also used in catalytic converters, last month, Bloomberg News points out. Both metals are found and mined together. The materials are used to accelerate chemical reactions that convert exhaust pollutants into benign gases.
Platinum, currently at about $944 per ounce, is favored for converters used in diesel engines. But slumping demand for diesels could cut demand for the metal by 300,000-600,000 ounces over the next 10 years, Citigroup Inc. estimates.
The bank predicts a glut of platinum will continue to at least 2020. Over the same period, supplies of palladium are likely to fall short of demand by 1 million ounces in 2018 before recovering to a 750,000-ounce shortfall in 2020.
Carmakers periodically adjust the blend of platinum and palladium used in their catalytic converters as the price of each metal rises or falls. Analysts point out that a persistence price spread between the two materials would likely prompt just such a reformulation.
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