LONDON, April 20 (Reuters) – COVID-19 has roiled industrial metal markets with lockdowns around the world eviscerating demand, forcing mine closures and upending supply chains.
It’s been a wild ride for the likes of copper, aluminium and zinc, all of which have plunged to multi-year lows.
So too for the precious metals complex with gold slumping in early March before rocketing to seven-year highs earlier this month as investors sought shelter from the macro storms.
Palladium, however, was a wild market before anyone had ever heard of the novel coronavirus. The spot price exploded from less than $800 per ounce in August 2018 to $2,875.50 in February this year.
Lease rates in the London inter-dealer market flexed to extreme levels in January-February, prompting Russian producer Nornickel to commit three tonnes from its “Global Palladium Fund” stocks to try and calm things down.
For the rest of this column: https://www.reuters.com/article/metals-palladium-ahome/column-can-coronavirus-pandemic-tame-the-wild-palladium-market-andy-home-idUSL8N2C828Z