RUSSIA/exports in platinum and palladium reduced

摘要

According to Mikhail Piskunov, head of the Moscow office of Johnson Matthey, one of the world's largest platinum group metal traders, Russia expected to market a total of 32.6 tons of platinum in 2001, a drop of 4.7 percent on 2000, and 143.1 tons of palladium, a drop of 11.5 percent compared to the same period.In December 2001, the company attributed the high demand for platinum to the 25 percent rise of the car industry's need for platinum, the increasing sale of diesel-powered cars in Europe and the replacement of palladium by platinum in gasoline engines. The increased use of platinum in the manufacture of certain kinds of glass, dental surgery alloys and oil refining have pushed industrial demand up by 3 percent.