From Mining weekly -8 Jul 2021 17:01
Platinum demand from the automotive sector is expected to be 25% up on 2020, reaching almost three million ounces this year, World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC) research director Trevor Raymond says, partly attributing the projected increase to the Euro 6d and China 6a emissions regulations coming into force and being applicable to all vehicles sold in Europe and China respectively.
This stands to affect some 31-million passenger and light commercial vehicles this year alone, with both standards being much more stringent than their predecessors.
Raymond explains to Engineering News & Mining Weekly that, since the first platinum- containing autocatalysts were introduced in the 1970s to reduce harmful vehicle emissions, global emissions standards have tightened and continue to do so.
“The introduction of platinum and other platinum-group metals (PGMs) as catalysts in emissions control systems effectively created a major new market, significantly increasing automotive demand for PGMs, which to this day remains the single-largest demand driver for platinum.”
The almost three-million-ounce 2021 demand forecast will be 3% higher than prepandemic levels, with the WPIC forecasting in May that, based on the expected 16% increase in light vehicle production over the pandemic-reduced level in 2020, platinum demand from the automotive sector will increase by 25%, compared with 2020.
Raymond expounds that automotive demand for platinum is up primarily because vehicle sales are much higher than in 2020, with the 16% increase reflecting the recovery in vehicle production and sales from the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Vehicle production and sales have not recovered to prepandemic levels, yet platinum automotive demand for 2021 is forecast to be above the 2019 level. This, Raymond notes, is due to three factors, namely the increased platinum used per car to achieve the new, lower emissions limits that mainly apply to passenger diesel vehicles in Europe and heavy-duty vehicles in China; increased sales of diesel mild-hybrid and plug-in mild-hybrid vehicles in Europe, as automakers increase sales of low carbon dioxide- (CO2-) emitting vehicles to reduce potential fleet CO2 emissions fines; and platinum substitution for palladium in petrol autocatalysts, at a 1:1 ratio, driven, since 2018, by the massive price premium of palladium over platinum.
The current forecast for the automotive sector’s platinum demand in 2021 is based on global light-duty vehicle production of 86.5-million units, which is some 1.1-million units lower than the projections announced in March, owing to a global shortage of semiconductor vehicle components.
To continue reading:-
https://www.miningweekly.com/article/demand-for-platinum-and-palladium-in-auto-sector-set-to-rise-as-regulations-tighten-2021-07-02/rep_id:3650
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