[Industry perspective] Heraeus Precious Metal Weekly ReviewIssuing time:2022-07-15 16:33 Source: Heraeus Precious Metals Review | Translation: World Platinum Investment Association Platinum South Africa's electricity supply is stable and has a bright future. Eskom and the workers' union have signed a wage agreement. As workers return to work, the power supply will be more reliable. Recently, South Africa implemented the sixth phase of power rationing, which means that most South African regions will have six hours of blackout every day. The sixth stage may affect the production of platinum group metals (PGM). As of this week, the power limit has been reduced from the sixth stage to the second stage, which means that there is less power supply interruption and the risk of platinum group metal production loss is small. Platinum has not regained the favor of investors. The second quarter of 2022 is the fourth consecutive quarterly decline in the global platinum ETF holdings, which is consistent with the capital outflow from the fourth quarter of 2015 to the third quarter of 2016. The average price of platinum in the same period was 978 US dollars/ounce, while the average price of platinum in the past four quarters was 1003 US dollars/ounce. From the fourth quarter of 2015 to the third quarter of 2016, the platinum sales volume was 466000 ounces, while since the third quarter of 21, the net platinum sales volume of the Fund was 633000 ounces, up 36%, and the total global position was 3.3 million ounces. The platinum price has broken through the support level of $900/ounce, which is easy to fall further, which may also trigger more ETF selling. Palladium The access to the Stillwater mine in Montana is being repaired. A temporary passage has been opened at the site of the largest platinum group metal production mine in the United States for employees to maintain. The mine has been closed since some main roads were damaged in the flood on June 13. Before that, the mine is expected to produce about 500000 ounces of palladium in 2022, accounting for 60% of the primary production of Sibanye - Stillwater in North America. According to the management of Stillwater, the mine will continue to close for 2-3 weeks. The shortage of semiconductor chips continues to plague automakers. Last week, due to the shortage of chips, auto factories in North America and Europe were forced to cut the production plan of 104000 cars. As of May this year, it is estimated that 2.5 million light vehicles will be lost by the end of the year, and the latest reduction plan will increase this number to at least 2.6 million. This decline will limit sales growth, inhibit the rebound of demand in many markets after the epidemic, and thus reduce the predicted growth of palladium demand in automotive catalysts. Although palladium prices have rebounded, the demand outlook seems to be deteriorating, which indicates that from the current level, the upside space may still be limited. The announcement of the new European emission standards was postponed until October. The Euro 7 emission control plan was initially expected to be implemented in 2021, but has been postponed to October 2022. The new regulations are expected to impose stricter restrictions on the emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter from new vehicles. This can be achieved by increasing the number of platinum group metals (mainly palladium and rhodium) in automotive catalysts, which will have a positive impact on the demand for platinum group metals. Rhodium, ruthenium, iridium The deployment plan of green hydrogen in the UK is increasing. BP and Bank of China (BOC) have completed a feasibility study on the supply and distribution of hydrogen in heavy transport in the UK. For heavy trucks, fuel cells have more advantages because of their faster refueling speed and longer range. As the UK tries to achieve its climate target, the transport industry is also more important because it accounts for about 16% of road exhaust emissions. The key to implementing this transformation is the deployment of hydrogenation/charging network. In the near future, another important demand area of green hydrogen is the mixed heating in the natural gas network. The development goal of the UK natural gas network is to replace 20% of the currently used natural gas with hydrogen by the winter of 2023. If proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis can be used to provide hydrogen, this will help to increase the demand for iridium. The prices of iridium and ruthenium fell for the second consecutive week. Iridium fell by $100/oz (- 1.9%) and ruthenium by $10/oz (- 1.6%). The price of rhodium rose slightly from $15150/ounce to $15350/ounce (+1%). (Source: Heraeus Precious Metals Review) Translator: World Platinum Investment Association Note: The information in this article is for reference only and does not represent the view of the World Platinum Investment Association. It does not constitute or should not be considered as the investment advice of the World Platinum Investment Association. Note: This press release is selected from the real-time industry news of foreign industry news websites, translated and edited into Chinese press release by the World Platinum Investment Association for readers' reference. In order to respect intellectual property rights, if any media wants to reprint, please indicate the original source of the article and the source of the translation. |
Adress：No.3 Chaoyang Road, Hardware Industrial Park, Tonghai County, Yuxi City, Yunnan Province
13391333898（Zhang）
E-mail：shppmt@163.com