Investors waiting for a rise in the price of gold might want to turn their attention to an expensive member of the platinum group of metals. Rhodium, used mainly in the manufacture of catalytic converters (exhaust emission control devices) in automobiles, recently topped US$4,000 per oz. in New York and may be heading higher.
International metals dealer Johnson Matthey, in its latest annual review of the pgm industry, estimates the demand for rhodium rose 9% in 1989 from the previous year, an increase attributed largely to use by the auto industry. Rhodium is combined with its “cheaper” cousins, platinum and palladium, to make 3-way catalysts.
Rhodium has minor application in the chemical, electrical and glass industries.
The major world supplier of rhodium is South Africa, followed by the Soviet Union. Johnson Matthey lists Canada as the only other supplier, the Canadian rhodium, is mined in byproduct form. Total global supply of the precious metal in 1989 was estimated to be 330,000 oz.
Rhodium started 1990 trading in the US$1,600-1,700-per-oz. range.
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