So what's driving the price of PGMs

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kurtak

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Ok - I am sure I am not the only one that has noticed the price of Pd & Rh

I mean Pd has now passed that of gold & Rh is now about $1,000 over gold

Is there some kind of "demand" for catalyst (other then catalytic converters) or a "demand" for circuitry components (military, space, medical)

Something has to be driving the price other then just paper investment (like gold & silver)

:shock: :?:

Kurt
 
I'm curious about this too.

With respect to Rhodium,
I guess the global volume is so low that a purchase from just a few big companies may "skyrocket" the price.
It has been very stable lately, with almost no movement in a week or so, some times.

Maybe some yet publicly unknown technology is on the verge of getting released,
or even secret technologies we will not hear about for a decade or so ;-)

These metals has very versatile uses, inert, high temp and cathalythic as they are.
Maybe other curious chemical or electrical properties too.
 
Well Pd was seen as a replacement for higher karat white golds and platinum for jewelry at one stage because it was much cheaper but that didn’t last long, if I remember correctly Russia sold a lot of their stocks of Pd some years ago so perhaps they are now stockpiling again, because PGMs are more industrial use metals rather than jewelry metals perhaps it’s pointing to an upturn in the world economy or as pointed out perhaps new technologies are driving the demand, I’m fairly certain that they are all rarer than gold which makes the platinum price a bit strange so perhaps it’s industrial uses are shrinking.
 
silversaddle1 said:
This could explain why PCB prices have been going up recently. I thought Palladium was widely used in PCB's.

In western tech it’s only used in telecoms I think at the moment,in stuff from the eastern bloc it was widely used as they had plenty of it to use and at the time it was cheap compared to gold.
 
silversaddle1 said:
This could explain why PCB prices have been going up recently. I thought Palladium was widely used in PCB's.

It's very rarely used in boards, and only certain types.

Board prices will begin to tumble soon - a lot of people will get caught out by the dropping PM values.
 
Palladium is used both as a catalyst and as an active colloid to make an active layer on the substrate for electroless copper to adhere. Used in via holes and also for electroless nickel. The amount is so small that ENIG looks like a bloated gold layer in comparison. But on the other side, it is used in a lot of different places, so it is present in small amounts in most pcb:s... as I understand it.

Palladium is not used as a circuit board plating but can be found in trace amounts in tin solder where palladium plated components have been soldered on circuit boards. Especially on older wave soldered boards.

For example on palladium usage : http://jkem.se/technologies/

Göran
 
anachronism said:
silversaddle1 said:
This could explain why PCB prices have been going up recently. I thought Palladium was widely used in PCB's.

It's very rarely used in boards, and only certain types.

Board prices will begin to tumble soon - a lot of people will get caught out by the dropping PM values.
We'll see. Kitco and many others are saying gold and silver to remain strong thru 2-19 with some jumps here and there. I'm sitting on over 10,000 pounds of sorted PCB, maybe more. I'm going to sell them in the spring, just don't want to mess with winter much.
 
niks neims said:
anachronism said:
dropping PM values

sage advice, based on solid foundation of thoroughly thoughtful arguments! Just look at the palladium ticker today - a disaster!

Obviously I worded it clumsily. By values I meant concentrations.
 
anachronism said:
niks neims said:
anachronism said:
dropping PM values

sage advice, based on solid foundation of thoroughly thoughtful arguments! Just look at the palladium ticker today - a disaster!

Obviously I worded it clumsily. By values I meant concentrations.

I kid, I kid, a loving joke, that`s all

I am willing to take some betting action, though:

What do you propose - how will change the spot price (by kitco, in USD, as shown in the ticker on the bottom of the page) of gold during next 6 months?
 
No...he’s saying that boards have less and less pm value and the guys that have been making all their profit on the rich 90’s era boards are going to be hurting.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
It's a matter of perspective, volume and ongoing hard data. From refinery returns over time you can track what's going on with similar grades of product. Then again you're only going to get reliable data with lots of repeat loads.

Nik you've alluded to me being "all mouth and no trousers" on a number of occasions so let's nail the perspective. Excuse the mess, we're not finished building the new plant but the central area pallets are all incoming kit for processing this month so far. Pallets of equipment to strip and pallets of boards/RAM/processors etc. Building.JPG
 
So back to my original question - what's driving the price of PGMs - Pd in particular

I may be wrong - but it can't be just "paper investment" - there must be some "physical demand"

If it was driven by paper investment - investors would not be targeting just Pd on the speculation of rising PMs because if that was the case you would see gold & silver taking off as well

After all - gold & silver are the real metals that drive the metals market when speculation drive the market & gold & silver are not even close to keep pace with Pd

Pd has gone up $491 in the last 6 months & $170 in the last 30 days

By comparison - gold has only gone up $66 in last 6 months & $44 in last 30 days

So clearly (I believe) paper investment is not what is driving the price of PGMS (Pd in particular) other wise we would be seeing similar rising of prices of gold & silver

as of the time of this post - gold is down 10 cents - while Pd is up $57 --- if paper was driving this I would think we would also be seeing gold up BY A LOT :!:

There must (I think) be some real physical demand for PGMs (Pd) :?:

Kurt
 
Kurt - I gather that recently there have been developments with regards to alloying Pd - this many or may not expand the uses of the metal.

Also if you look to who is producing most of the Pd these days and their ability to manipulate markets there may be some small explanantion there.

Personally I think it's market manipulation and manipulating Pd is far easier than gold.
 
anachronism said:
It's a matter of perspective, volume and ongoing hard data. From refinery returns over time you can track what's going on with similar grades of product. Then again you're only going to get reliable data with lots of repeat loads.

Nik you've alluded to me being "all mouth and no trousers" on a number of occasions so let's nail the perspective. Excuse the mess, we're not finished building the new plant but the central area pallets are all incoming kit for processing this month so far. Pallets of equipment to strip and pallets of boards/RAM/processors etc. Building.JPG

Are you a custodian there so that m2 should impress me?

I`m joking of course - congratulations on your business going well, I definitely do envy your turnover :)

Snoman spelled it out for me - It just touched a nerve before, when I perceived that you`re trying to sing the "predicting the future PM market changes" song in your trademark arrogant tune, sorry about that :)

Back to the topic:
Look what uncle Vlad has to say about the Athena`s metal:
https://www.rt.com/business/449029-palladium-record-supply-demand/

So looks like it was my favorite neighbor to the east after all, they are always up to something :)
 
There's a distinction between arrogance and confidence. Arrogant person purposefully tries to make other people feel or look stupid to further an ego. Very often they have no knowledge themselves. A confident person is self aware and whilst they have more knowledge, they are both prepared to accept that they can be wrong and can treat others with respect.

Jon

Edit: Kurt please accept my apologies for this thread derailment Sir. Sometimes some things just have to be said.
 
anachronism said:
There's a distinction between arrogance and confidence. Arrogant person purposefully tries to make other people feel or look stupid to further an ego. Very often they have no knowledge themselves. A confident person is self aware and whilst they have more knowledge, they are both prepared to accept that they can be wrong and can treat others with respect.

Jon

touché :)
 
Wow, high road Jon. By the way, I have basically the same exact pallet racking.



As for Pd pricing--part of it is the diesel effect. Pt is the big NOx abatement catalyst. After the VW scandal, Euro sentiment for diesel hit the wall in a bad way. Pt is still the king of the PGMs, despite Ir, Rh and Pd outstripping it. Ir, Rh more rare to be sure, harder to extract and refine to be sure, but ultimately platinum is the most useful of all of them.

I don't know what's driving Pd--perhaps it's the fact that people thing the Ruski's are out of it? I don't know. Silliness from my perspective.

As far as platinum is concerned--I'm buy, buy, buy. Sooner or later, the silliness with palladium will end. As things change on this planet and people realize that point A-B travel requires not internal combustion but fuel cells, Rh and Pd are dead in the water. Pt will be king as we transition to a hydrogen-electric economy. Everyone is betting big on car companies like Tesla. Even the Big 3 automakers in the US are going electric/hybrid. To what end? It's not like the US electric grid (or anyone's, for that matter) could support even 50% adoption even if we all charged our vehicles at night.

Keep in mind that some configurations of fuel cells can "burn" ethanol and methanol. These are liquid fuels that can go into our existing distribution systems (gas/petrol stations) with very little modification. Hell, some of these can be made from CO2, platinum catalyst, water, and some heat.

So my money is on platinum long term.
 
Lou said:
As for Pd pricing--part of it is the diesel effect.

Seems strange, after so many public declarations about banning diesel engines all together (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_banning_fossil_fuel_vehicles).... based on that Pd price should rather go down than rise...

I will heed your advice regarding Pt, though :)...

Btw what do you think about the long term future projections of silver price?
 
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