Palladium Output Cuts Needed to Bolster Market, Northam CEO Says

William Clowes

Fri, May 31, 2024, 6:49 AM PDT3 min read

(Bloomberg) -- Palladium prices won’t recover unless the mining industry cuts supply further, according to the boss of a South African producer.

Palladium – mostly used to curb emissions from gasoline vehicles – has fallen 72% since peaking in March 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Just over two-fifths of the metal is produced by Russia’s Norilsk Nickel PJSC as a byproduct of nickel mining, but palladium is also extracted alongside platinum in South Africa, Zimbabwe and North America.

Paul Dunne, chief executive officer of Northam Platinum Holdings Ltd., said the market for platinum-group metals “is the worst” he’s seen in a career that started in the late-1980s. Northam and its larger South African peers – Anglo American Platinum Ltd., Sibanye Stillwater Ltd. and Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. – have been cutting costs and scaling back expansion plans after earnings slumped last year. But more is required, Dunne said.

“We need to see a real structural change in the supply of palladium to reassert pricing power into the market,” he said in an interview. “That’s obviously going to bring some pain but we think it’s necessary.”

Although Northam plans to increase production this year, the company announced in February that it would pare back or pause development projects at its three operating mines.

Read the full article at:  Palladium Output Cuts Needed to Bolster Market, Northam CEO Says (yahoo.com)