SINGAPORE – Palladium’s blistering rally shows no sign yet of cooling off as records tumble: the precious metal advanced to the highest ever on Friday as it climbed for an unprecedented sixteenth day. Sister metal platinum fell.
Prices are now barreling toward $2 000/oz as mining disruptions in major producer South Africa add to supply concerns, tightening a market already hobbled by a persistent deficit.
Palladium is headed for a seventh quarterly climb as demand for the metal used in autocatalysts has been strengthened by tighter emissions rules, with Citigroup forecasting it could hit $2 500/oz next year. In South Africa, rolling blackouts have hurt miners’ operations after state utility Eskom Holdings announced record power cuts.
Spot palladium climbed as much as 1.3% to $1 965.82/oz, while platinum headed south, dropping as much as 1.8%. Morgan Stanley said in an outlook this week that it sees a large deficit for the former, and continued surplus in the latter.