The platinum group metals (PGM) basket is under strain, but that’s due more to a decline in aggregate car sales rather than a shift toward electrification, says Matt Watson, founder of Precious Metals Commodity Management LLC., and host of Green Rush — a program that focuses on precious and critical minerals as they impact the clean energy transition.
In mid-March Watson spoke to Jonathan Butler, head of business development at Mitsubishi Corporation.
Platinum, palladium and rhodium are key metals used in autocatalysts, or catalytic converters, which reduce tailpipe emissions in vehicles. Palladium is typically used in gasoline engines whereas platinum is more often used in diesel engines.
Watson noted aggregate car sales are down about 23% and haven’t hit 93 million since 2017.
“Vehicle sales I think are the lever that's hurting the PGM basket at this point, more so than the EV penetration rate,” he said.
Butler agreed, listing the factors that have resulted in lower sales: the slowdown in China, the covid-19 pandemic, the semiconductor shortage, and now, higher interest rates deterring new car buyers.
“There's something like a 10-million-unit vehicle delta between where things
should have been had we not had the pandemic and the chip crisis and everything else, and where we actually are now,” he said. “Those are vehicles that just simply weren't made and incidentally that has quite an influence on the long-term recycling market because there's going to be a missing generation of vehicles that aren’t coming through the recycling stream.”
Lower internal combustion engine (ICE) sales have had an impact on palladium and rhodium, which have accumulated surplus and whose prices have fallen over the past two years. Eighty-five percent of demand for these metals is from gasoline and diesel engines.
“When you look at the long-term outlook palladium and rhodium are really going to be challenged,” Watson said.
...