Barclays: Palladium Deficit Will Continue This Year

The palladium market was in a “sizeable deficit” in 2014, and is forecast to stay in if this year. Imports from the world’s largest palladium producer, Russia, to Switzerland continue to decline, Barclays said in a research note yesterday.

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“In line with our expectations for limited shipments from Russia, the Swiss trade data for December revealed that palladium imports were subdued at 6,700 oz. This takes shipments for 2014 to 184,000 oz, down two-thirds [from 517,300 oz in 2013],” Barclays analyst Suki Cooper told Platts.

The price of US palladium bar closed as the biggest mover for Tuesday, February 3. Switching from a downward trend, the metal closed at $785.00 per ounce following a 2.1% increase. Chinese palladium bar gained 1.7% to finish at CNY 177.00 ($28.27) per gram. The price of Japanese palladium bar remained essentially flat at JPY 2,944 ($25.04) per gram.

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The price of US platinum bar fell 1.1% to $1,225 per ounce. Japanese platinum bar finished the day down 0.8% to JPY 4,620 ($39.29) per gram. At CNY 264.00 ($42.16) per gram, Chinese platinum bar fell 0.8% yesterday.

Japanese gold bullion closed 0.9% lower at JPY 4,800 ($40.82) per gram. The price of US gold bullion declined 0.7% to $1,274 per ounce. Indian gold bullion prices saw a 0.5% decline to INR 27,747 ($449.38) per 10 grams. Chinese gold bullion ended the day at CNY 257.00 ($41.05) per gram, after the 0.3% drop on Tuesday.

At CNY 3,600 ($574.95) per kilogram, Chinese silver fell 1.0% yesterday. Indian silver finished the day down 0.4% to INR 38,487 ($623.32) per kilogram. US silver closed 0.3% lower at $17.18 per ounce. Japanese silver ended the day at JPY 645.00 ($5.49) per 10 grams, after the 0.2% drop on Tuesday.