The price of palladium, a precious and rare metal in the world, continued to rise, exceeding the price of gold, against the backdrop of the developments of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Today, Tuesday, the price of palladium in spot transactions jumped more than 8% to $ 2688 an ounce.
Palladium is a member of the platinum family of metals, and jewelry experts consider it an alternative to gold or platinum, especially as it has properties that make it very valuable in the automotive industry.
More than 80% of palladium metal is used as a catalytic converter in automobile exhaust scrubbers, as it is installed between the engine and inverter insulators in automobiles.
Palladium has the advantage of converting up to 90% of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide emitted by automobiles into less hazardous nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water vapor.
Palladium is also used in many industries, as it can be used in the electronics industry, as well as in dentistry and medicine in general.
Palladium can also be used in groundwater treatment, hydrogen purification, and the jewelry industry, as well as being widely used in catalytic converters.
Palladium height
The United States and its allies moved on Saturday to block certain Russian banks from accessing SWIFT’s global system of interbank payments, which traders and analysts say could disrupt Russia’s exports of all commodities from oil to grain.
Russia’s Nornickel is the world’s largest producer and supplier of palladium, the world’s largest producer of refined nickel, and a major producer of platinum.
The company produced 2.6 million ounces of palladium last year, or 40% of global mine production, and 641,000 ounces of platinum, or about 10% of total mine production.
According to Archyde.com, the company produced 193,000 tons of nickel in 2021, or about 7% of the estimated global mine production of 2.7 million tons.
On Monday, Goldman Sachs expected an increase in the prices of consumer goods, of which Russia is a major producer, and this includes oil, gas, aluminium, palladium, nickel, wheat and corn.
The bank said: “The recent escalation with Russia creates inflationary risks accompanied by clear stagflation on the broader economy, driven by higher energy prices, which reinforces our conviction that gold prices will rise in the coming months and our target price of $2150 an ounce.”
Another major reason for the high value of palladium is due to the fact that its deposits are scarce, although there are major mines for the metal in Russia, South Africa, Ontario and Montana.
It is estimated that the total palladium found worldwide is about 110 thousand tons of the platinum group metals.
gold prices
The price of gold futures contracts rose today, Tuesday – for delivery in April – by about 0.54%; equivalent to $ 10.30, to reach the level of $ 1911 an ounce.
The spot price for the yellow metal also rose by 0.14%, to reach $1,911.64 an ounce.
Gold, often used as a safe store of value during times of political and financial uncertainty, rose about 6.5% in February, after hitting an 18-month high of $173.96 last week.
At the same time, the price of silver futures contracts – for May delivery – increased by more than 0.69%, to record $24.54 an ounce.
While the spot platinum price rose by 0.81% at $1055.82 an ounce.