This year is expected to be the sixth consecutive year that global platinum consumption has outstripped supply, with a predicted total supply decline of 4% overshadowing the anticipated 6% decrease in demand.
Following a ‘mixed’ 2016, the World Platinum Investment Council’s (WPIC’s) latest ‘Platinum Quarterly’ report, released on Thursday, raised the forecast platinum market deficit for 2017 to 120 000 oz after the market ended 2016 at a deficit of 270 000 oz – a deeper shortfall than previously estimated.
‘The upward revisions of the 2016 deficit and the forecast 2017 deficit, which will be the sixth consecutive annual shortfall, show that the platinum market is tightening amid solid demand and increasingly constrained supply,’ WPIC research director Trevor Raymond told Mining Weekly Online in a telephonic interview ahead of the report’s release.
Global platinum supply remained constrained in 2016, while overall demand remained constant, he noted, with the report showing a total platinum supply increase of 1% to 7.96-million ounces in 2016, while global demand decreased marginally to 8.2-million ounces.
In 2017, it is forecast that total platinum supply will decline by 4% to 7.66-million ounces, with both refined production and secondary supply projected to decrease by a respective 2% and 6% to 5.92-million ounces and 1.76-million ounces, and total mining supply set to drop by 3% to 5.9-million ounces.
This post was published at Mining Weekly
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