The decarbonization of the transport industry played a huge part in the precious metals story in 2017 when palladium exceeded platinum for the first time in 16 years, Hunter Hillcoat told Metal Bulletin.
Investec topped the Apex 2017 price prediction table for both the precious metals (97.9% accuracy) and iron ore categories (90.7% accuracy). "2017 was a good year for precious metals all in all but probably the most interesting development was palladium exceeding platinum for the first time since the start of the century," Investec analyst Hillcoat said. Hunter Hillcoat of Investec"A large part of that change in status quo was the ongoing decarbonisation of the transport industry and the government pushback," he added. Palladium exceeded its sister metal in price for the first time since 2001 in October 2017 after climbing nearly 35% in the first nine months of the year. During the same month, the metal scaled the $1,000 per oz level for the first time in 17 years - the 2017 high was $1,040.50 per oz. "The use of gasoline is a positive for palladium - the switch is...