LONDON (Commodity Online): Platinum group metals to outperform gold in the coming quarters due to supply/demand factors affecting the PGMs, said Deutsche Bank in a research note.
According to Deutsche Bank , the most recent focus is a labor disruption at Impala Platinum’s Rustenburg operation in South Africa.
“We note that the company has been negatively impacted by safety stoppages and project delays over the past several quarters; double-digit wage inflation has been a further pressure point, exacerbated by recent strength in the ZAR (South African rand),” Deutsche Bank added.
Challenges facing the PGM sector seem to be growing ever greater and may mean disappointing supply growth for platinum, palladium and rhodium, the bank says. Meanwhile, 2012 PGM production from Norilsk is expected to be flat.
“We continue to expect PGMs to outperform gold over the next several quarters as a consequence of improving demand conditions and constraints on supply,” Deutsche Bank concludes.
