Signs of surplus--2010's small deficit not repeated as supply increases

摘要

THE platinum market moved into a surplus of 430,000oz last year, according to Johnson Matthey plc's Platinum 2012, the latest review of the platinum group metals (PGM) market, released on May 14. A 2% rise in gross demand to just under 8.1 Moz, led by resurgent buying for industrial applications, was more than offset by higher supplies and rising levels of recycling from autocatalyst and jewellery scrap.The price of platinum partly reflected the weaker fundamentals, but was also dragged down by a wider asset sell-off by investors in the December quarter, falling to a two-year low of US$1,364/oz by the close of 2011. By the end of the year, net long speculative platinum positions reached the lowest level since the second half of calendar 2009.