Palladium prices have skyrocketed, hitting record highs over the past year due to a growing deficit of the precious metal. The auto industry, the key consumer of the metal, is expected to bear the biggest impact of rising costs.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, palladium futures hit another record of $1233,82 per ounce, narrowing the price discount to an ounce of gold to the lowest margin in nearly 16 years. On Wednesday, palladium overtook gold, reaching\u00a0$1,251 per ounce, as of 9:47am (GMT), while\u00a0gold futures were trading at $1241 per ounce.<\/p>\n
Palladium has taken a 49 percent jump in price since mid-August with the Wall Street Journal calling the commodity one of the best investment assets of the year. The surge in prices for the industrial metal is reportedly caused by a higher demand from the auto manufacturing sector amid the recent shift from diesel to petrol-powered engines.<\/p>\n
Palladium is traditionally used in catalytic converters aimed at controlling exhaust emissions by converting toxic gases and pollutants into less-toxic pollutants. Nearly 70 percent of palladium demand comes from global carmakers, according to data compiled by commodities advisory CPM Group.<\/p>\n
Analysts expect the price of palladium to keep rising as high demand for the metal, especially from China which is currently fighting for a less-polluted environment, may keep supplies quite tight.<\/p>\n
The vast majority of the rare metal is extracted from mines in two countries. Over 80 percent of palladium global output comes as a byproduct from nickel mining in Russia and platinum mining in South Africa.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s impossible to increase palladium output to meet the soaring industry demand, as the supplies heavily rely on volume of extraction of other metals, Steven Dunn, head of exchange-traded funds at Aberdeen Standard Investments told Bloomberg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Palladium prices have skyrocketed, hitting record highs over the past year due to a growing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n