This content was published on <\/p>\n
July 22, 2025 – 19:57\n<\/p>\n
(Bloomberg) \u2014 The platinum market has tightened to unprecedented levels in the past few days as tariff fears and speculative buying pull metal from the key London and Zurich markets into warehouses in the US and China.<\/p>\n
Following a record rally last month, spot prices have soared to fresh all-time highs and the implied cost of borrowing the metal for one month has hit the steepest level in data going back to 2002. The inflow of platinum into facilities linked to the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday was the second-highest on record.\u00a0<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump\u2019s erratic trade threats led more than half a million ounces of platinum to flow into US warehouses earlier this year to capture premium prices driven by tariff fears \u2014 a surge of shipments similar to the one seen in markets for industrial metals such as copper.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Though no figures exist for how low inventories are in London and Zurich, stocks have also been drawn down by record Chinese imports of 36 tons in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
Spot prices have surged almost 60% this year, and platinum\u2019s unusual scarcity in the dominant over-the-counter spot market in London has led the precious metal\u2019s annualized one-month borrowing costs to spiral close to 40%. Most of the time that rate is close to zero.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While prices retreated slightly on Tuesday, there\u2019s little sign that the market tightness is easing. The price structure known as backwardation \u2014 with buyers paying more for the closest deliveries than for longer-dated contracts to secure supplies \u2014 only intensified this month, Jonathan Butler, head of business development at Mitsubishi International in London, wrote in a note.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA combination of tariff-related dislocation, physical buying in Asia and speculative interest led to extreme market tightness,\u201d he said. \u201cThe difference now is that the backwardation is deeper and more widespread across the curve than at any time in more than 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lease rates might also in part have been driven higher by platinum users\u2019 skepticism about the steep price rally, according to Trevor Raymond, chief of industry body World Platinum Investment Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the metal has been rangebound between $950 and $1100 an ounce for years, many market participants didn\u2019t see the rally as sustainable, they said \u2018we don\u2019t need to react, we can lease the metal,\u2019\u201d he said. Given the now prohibitive cost of borrowing platinum, some of those borrowers may soon end up buying metal to end those leases, rather than rolling over the loans.<\/p>\n
Spot platinum edged\u00a00.8%\u00a0lower on Tuesday, to $1,439.15\u00a0an ounce as of 1:57 p.m. in New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stocks in American warehouses had began to decline in April once platinum was exempted from Washington\u2019s first batch of tariffs, bringing US prices back in line with London and Zurich. But US premiums surged once again after Trump unexpectedly announced a 50% tariff on copper.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although platinum is still exempt, the copper levy has \u201cupped tariff risk in the white metals significantly,\u201d Nicky Shiels, head of metals strategy at MKS Pamp SA said in a note.<\/p>\n
In addition to investment demand, platinum is used in catalytic converters and laboratory equipment. The WPIC estimates a supply deficit of almost 1 million ounces this year, further eroding dwindling above-ground stocks.<\/p>\n
\u00a92025 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This content was published on July 22, 2025 – 19:57 (Bloomberg) \u2014 The platinum market has tightened to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[84,10180,10675,467,10181,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-16270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-markets","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-business-general","10":"tag-commodity-markets","11":"tag-markets","12":"tag-ticker","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}