For nearly 30 years, platinum demand increased by 5 % a year and the industry was in such a comfort zone that it imagined that high demand growth was a given. But complacency has landed platinum mining in trouble as production continued when demand went flat, and down went the prices. Being excessively Eurocentric, platinum has been badly hurt by lower gross domestic product in Europe and making matters worse is the substitution of lower-priced palladium, the thrifting of rhodium after its 2008 price spike and a fourfold increase in the recycling of platinum scrap to two-million ounces a year. Simultaneously deteriorating grades, deepening mines, expensive capital and soaring wages have seen yearly double-digit percentage cost rises since 2000.