Interest in platinum bars and coins is currently very high, but Germany-based coininvest.com MD Daniel Marburger warns that the industry is facing “tremendous challenges” with supply, especially as there are limited new product announcements, meaning that demand cannot be met.
With the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, Marburger cites the last six months as “extraordinary” in term of the extent of the impact on precious metals markets.
“The pandemic has changed the needs of our client base, and we are seeing that they are interested in investing in precious metals [owing] to economic and geopolitical uncertainty, which is prevalent on a global scale,” he comments.
Marburger explains that precious metals are traditionally less volatile than other forms of investment, which “makes them an interesting proposition” in times of economic instability.
However, with regard to platinum, coininvest.com is not seeing a difference in demand between bars and coins, both of which are equally popular and in high demand.
Unfortunately, pandemic-related closures of refiners and mints have reduced the availability of platinum products more than those in gold.
“We at coininvest.com are very fortunate to be direct distributors of government-owned mints such as The Royal Mint and the Royal Canadian Mint, and we benefitted from stock levels established before the pandemic,” Marburger says.
However, he adds that sourcing additional material has been, and continues to be, challenging as there are limited to no platinum coins or bars available on secondary markets, “making it almost impossible” for coininvest.com to supplement its stock.