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Subscription Market Research Reports

THE PLATINUM REPORT
Platinum Quarterly Market Report Subscription

Platinum Supply Updates:

Mined Supply By Region: The same S. America, Zimbabwe, North American, and ROW country mined supply updates. Key to this supply analysis is not only capturing the Russian and North American planned expansions, but also the planned declines in S. African production.

Global Auto Catalyst Recycle: Tracking the growth and output in global Auto Catalyst recycle operations is critical for the first time.

Platinum Demand Updates: For Platinum, Auto Catalyst (40%), Jewelry (31%) , and Industrial Demand (29%) are all have their own major demand detail and trends.

Auto Catalyst Model Maintenance and Refresh: Same as Palladium. Heavy Duty diesel growth, especially in China is key to this segment, as well as the decline in light duty diesel in the EU and India.

Palladium Demand Summarized:

Auto Catalyst Demand by Region/Vehicle Category
Jewelry Palladium Demand / Trends
Industrial Demand including sector updates on Semiconductor and Electronics Demand, Advanced Pharmaceutical Demand, and the emerging Fuel Cell PEM market growing demand (Stationary, Transportation, and Portable devices).

THE PALLADIUM REPORT
Palladium Quarterly Market Report Subscription

Palladium Supply Updates:

Russia: Russia expansion of smelting and processing capacities have added capacity to existing operations. 2 new Palladium rich mines also generate nickel as a byproduct. Central to the Russian mined output is the definitive Feasibility Study publication on their proposed Artic Palladium Project just south and adjacent to their current Norilsk mining operations. This is a 50/50 Joint Venture between Russian Platinum and NorNickel. This open pit mine has zero infrastructure, and no available smelting and concentration operations. Norilsk will have to build out this collection, smelting, and refining capacity. Early reports on this mine are for 70-100 metric tons annually of incremental palladium production. Norilsk thinks this project could reach production as early as 2026 although I am suspect of that early of a production date. The November 2019 Feasibility publication will reportedly include a detailed timeline of production for this new site. Recall that Norilsk wants this new mine for its Nickel for Li-Ion production purposes as well.
North America: Planned expansions at Sibanye-Stillwater in Montana, and Canadian interests will expand palladium global production.
Zimbabwe: Addition of new mines including
S. Africa: Loss of production at Anglo, Impala, and Sibanye-Stillwater mining operations on the Western and Eastern limb are forecast over the next 15 years. These losses will be offset with new sites in construction on the Northern Limb, including Waterberg.

Global Auto Catalyst Recycle: Tracking the growth and output in global Auto Catalyst recycle operations is critical for the first time. The global recycle output is less than collected for the first time in decades. All key processors in the EU, North America, and Japan are at maximum capacity, turning away business, mostly smaller collectors. SiC and AlTi and other elements introduced 15 years ago are showing up in the recycle loop, impacting the operational efficiencies of recyclers, and lower output in many cases as SiC is now impact 9% of the lots in 2019, 15% of the lots in 2020. Techemet has recently brought new smelting capacity online. Arc Metals in Sweden is expected to announce a new capacity addition of SiC robust processing capacity in Sweden in the next 6 months.

Palladium Demand Updates: For Palladium, the auto catalyst sector is king.

Auto Catalyst Model Maintenance and Refresh: I have a detailed working global auto catalyst loadings model for Gasoline Light Duty, Diesel Light Duty, Hybrids, PHEV’s, BEV’s (zero loadings), FCEV’s (Pt loadings), (Diesel) Heavy Duty On-Road, (Diesel) Heavy Duty Off-Road, Busses, and Motorcycles. This model is refreshed regularly with the latest LMC Automotive Sales actual data, and 5-year forecast model by region, for each model and make of car/truck. This volumes also account for all of the regional global emission standards, and shifts in testing protocol.
Gasoline hybrid vehicles continue to require 10-15% higher loadings than conventional ICE vehicles. Tracking the impact of Real World Driving conditions on Hybrid loadings in 2020 will be key to formulating an accurate outlook on loadings.
Tracking the Platinum for Palladium design swap is critical. Last week I learned about one big OEM that is already making the move on model 2020 vehicles which began production in early August. This is one OEM is being confirmed now, and the impact initially limited the US market, yet it is still significant, while I expect others to follow over the course of the next two years. Participation in the SAE World Congress (WCX) in Detroit each April is central to staying close to these design decision makers and current trends. Note: This conference costs me $4k annually to attend.
Real World Driving Test Conditions rolled out in China an EU over the past year. Tracking their full implementation in 2020 and potential further expansion to Japan and other global markets is key going forward. For the USA, tracking the ongoing battles between the California Air Resource Board (CARB) and the US EPA national regulations are key as well. Currently 13 states representing about 40% of the USA population have adopted the CARB tighter standards as their goal.

Palladium Demand Summarized:

Auto Catalyst Demand by Region/Vehicle Category
Jewelry Palladium Demand / Trends
Lithium-Oxygen. As we partner in the mapping of Lithium Oxygen battery technology, I will immediately being modeling potential Lithium-Oxygen battery Palladium demand. We will need to map Consumer Electronics and BEV applications.

THE RHODIUM REPORT
Rhodium Quarterly Market Report Subscription

Rhodium Supply Updates:

Mined Supply By Region: Of course S. Africa and Zimbabwe are the crucial centers for our mined supply of this critical element. Russia, North America, and ROW Rhodium production accounts for only 18% of the global Rhodium mined supply. Here the declines in the Western and Eastern Limb UG2 Reef production will hurt the overall mined output for this critical catalyst material.

Global Auto Catalyst Recycle: Tracking the growth and output in global Auto Catalyst recycle operations is critical for the first time.

Rhodium Demand Updates: For Rhodium, there are some electronics and petrochemical catalyst demand applications, but today Auto Catalyst dominates this demand landscape.

Rhodium Demand Summarized:

Auto Catalyst Demand by Region/Vehicle Category
Industrial Demand including sector updates on Semiconductor and Electronics Demand, the emerging Fuel Cell PEM market growing demand (Stationary, Transportation, and Portable devices).

THE RUTHENIUM REPORT
Ruthenium Quarterly Market Report Subscription

Ruthenium Supply Updates: Recall as I stated in my Reno presentation, the Ruthenium S. African supply is scheduled to decline. Modest offsets by new mining projects in S. African Northern Limb, Zimbabwe, and RoW will not offset the declines in the S. African UG2 Reef.

Ru Mining: Tracking developments on expansion in mining projects, acceleration of projects as PGM basket prices rise improving the economics of the mining sector, and funding from streaming groups like Wheaton can alter the course of ruthenium supply.
Ru Secondary Refine: Tracking the mines use of secondary mines, like Furuya Metal’s in Japan, to process previous years surplus mined concentrate materials is fundamental to connecting demand with supply. This is the key reason the Ruthenium prices has folded over some $17-$30/Toz in 2019 so far.

Ruthenium Demand Updates: For Ruthenium, this will help you understand each of these demand segments I quickly touched on in my Reno presentation. You need to get up to speed on key segments, especially:

Ruthenium Thick Film Resistors and competing resistor technologies. This application alone consumes some 400k Toz/year today.
Chlor-Alkali and Waste Water Treatment markets. This segment at its peak with dozens of new chlorine plants and waste-water treatment facilities coming online consumed 300k Toz.
Hard Disk Drive market. Although in decline, this segment holds significant pool account positions for Ruthenium and Platinum.
MRAM / SST-MRAM Memory Market. This emerging technology is growing at a 51% CAGR. There are discussions about MRAM supplanting current 3D-NAND memory technologies. If this occurs, Ru demand globally could grow by 50% versus today.
Hydrogen Generation. Ruthenium and Platinum’s use in the supporting water electrolysis is an emerging demand.

Ruthenium Market Balance

THE IRIDIUM REPORT
Iridium Quarterly Market Report Subscription

Iridium Supply Updates: Recall as I stated in my Reno presentation, the Ruthenium S. African supply is scheduled to decline. Modest offsets by new mining projects in S. African Northern Limb, Zimbabwe, and RoW will not offset the declines in the S. African UG2 Reef.

Iridium Demand Updates:

Electrical Demand: LED Crucibles for Sapphire colored LED’s remain a key demand segment. This is followed by IrCl compounds used in OLED TV’s and displays. Medical Imaging, and smartphone SAW Filter Crystal Growth Crucibles round out the majority of Electrical Demand.
Chemical Demand: Acetic Acid production is the primary Chemical demand for Iridium. In the near future, Iridium paired with platinum in PEM based Electrolyzers for Hydrogen production are going to be a significant demand.
ElectroChemcial Iridium Demand: is made up of Water Treatment and Chlor-Alkali applications.
Other Iridium Demand: is made up of Iridium Spark Plugs, Mil-Aero applications, general lab crucibles and lab ware, and a number of unique small volume demand applications.

Iridium Market Balance