- Write by:
-
Friday, September 25, 2020 - 6:24:17 PM
-
758 Visit
-
Print
Mining News Pro - The rhodium price has been on a stomach-churning ride this year, rocketing from $6,050 an ounce at the start of 2020 to a high of $13,800 an ounce by March 10, only to plummet to $7,800 an ounce before the end of that month as covid-19 spread around the world.
Like its sister metals palladium and platinum, rhodium’s main application is to clean vehicle emissions, and surging demand amid tighter pollution regulation, particularly in Europe and China, and supply shortfalls from top producer South Africa could see the metal rally further.
South African PGM producers extract a mix of metals comprising roughly 60% platinum, 30% palladium and 10% rhodium and supply from the African nation would likely be a fifth below 2019’s total.
Insufficient supplies meant producers short of metal to honour contracts had been buying in the spot market, a rhodium trader told Reuters:
A 17% slump in rhodium supply to 945,000 ounces will leave the market with a 55,000-ounce deficit this year, Heraeus and SFA (Oxford), a research house, said in a recent report.
Heraeus and SFA expect prices to fall back below $10,000 within six months as supplies normalize, but the market could remain volatile.
Rhodium is also alloyed with platinum to make reinforcement fibre for the high-tech glass on consumer electronics, and used as a catalyst to make certain chemicals.
Due to rarity, the small size of the spot market (all of which is over the counter) and concentrated supply, prices are typically volatile.
Rhodium had a stunning run in 2019, rewarding investors with steady gains ending in 150% in annual returns, but there are few commodities as volatile as PGMs.
In 2008, rhodium touched $10,025 an ounce just before the global financial crisis hit, but the metal would drop 90% before the end of that tumultuous year.
Short Link:
https://www.miningnews.ir/En/News/605019
The United States is looking to Africa to help loosen a Chinese stranglehold on battery metals and reduce Russia’s ...
A researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis in Rostock has developed new methods for the synthesis of drug ...
African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) said on Friday it was deferring plans to expand output at its Bokoni mine due to low ...
A global platinum deficit in 2024 will be deeper than previously expected as mines hit by low prices for palladium and ...
South Africa’s platinum producers are in crisis, as slumping metal prices force jobs cuts and erode profits.
Sibanye Stillwater on Tuesday reported a $2 billion annual loss and scrapped its final dividend, hurt by a slump in ...
Northam Platinum’s CEO said on Friday that platinum mining companies in South Africa, the world’s top supplier of the ...
Impala Platinum could shut some loss-making South African mining operations if metal prices deteriorate further and ...
Anglo American will review its assets after a 94% plunge in annual profit and writedowns at its diamond and nickel ...
No comments have been posted yet ...