The platinum price dropped below $1,000 per ounce for the first time in six years on Friday, pressured lower by bearish sentiment, weak demand for industrial metals and concerns over new supply coming to the market.
Spot platinum was last at $998/1,003 per ounce, down $8 on Thursday’s close – it recently struck its lowest since February 2009 at $998.50. Platinum is now trading at a discount of more than $130 to gold.
Despite a long-term deficit that should be supportive for prices, sentiment has been weak for some time. Even during the heights of last year’s five-month strike in South Africa, platinum peaked at just $1,520 – it had started the year at $1,371 and closed it 12 percent lower at $1,206.
But new concerns that supply could be much higher than expected have been gradually pulling the price down, alongside perceived weakness in demand for diesel-based autocatalysts.
“This is due to a big increase in supply, not only from the mines but also from scrap, coupled with a gloomy outlook for the Chinese and European car market,” Marex Spectron’s David Govett said earlier today.
Still, European car sales bounced back sharply last month – new vehicle sales in the first six months of the year rose 8.2 percent to 7.41 million units from 6.85 million previously.
On the supply side, the WPIC earlier this year revised its predicted deficit for 2015 to 190,000 ounces, 72 percent below its estimated 2014 shortfall of 670,000 ounces and well below other analysts’ estimates for this year nearer the 700,000-ounce mark.
In other metals, palladium also looks weak – the metal is at its lowest since November 2012 at $616/621 per ounce, down $9.
Gold is now at its lowest this year at $1,139.40/1,140.20 per ounce, down $5.20 and increasingly closer to what would be its lowest in five years at $1,131.60. Silver was last eight cents weaker at $14.89/14.94.
(Editing by Mark Shaw)
The post Platinum price drops below $1,000/oz for first time in six years appeared first on The Bullion Desk.
No comments:
Post a Comment