WPIC reverses 2021 platinum forecast from ‘deficit to surplus’

In an announcement last week, The World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC) said that it now expects the global platinum market to be in surplus this year as mine supply ramps up and investment demand falls. The roughly 8 million ounces a year market will be oversupplied by 190,000 ounces in 2021.
WPIC, in its last quarterly report in May, predicted a shortfall of 158,000 ounces, which would have been the third consecutive year of undersupply. 
Last year, the coronavirus pandemic sharply reduced the platinum supply. Demand from industry and jewellers also fell but investors bought huge amounts and almost half a million ounces flooded into exchange vaults in New York, pushing the market into deficit.
As of now, the demand from industry has rebounded and a boom in heavy-duty vehicle production and tighter emissions standards are pushing up consumption by the auto sector. But jewellery sales remain weak, investment demand, while strong, has slowed, and metal has stopped flowing to New York.
Platinum supply, meanwhile, has rebounded faster than expected due to the rapid processing of a backlog of material created by plant outages in 2020. The platinum market was in surplus in the second quarter, the first quarterly surplus since January-March 2020. 
However, mine supply is expected to flatline in the coming years and demand should rise as automakers use more platinum in exhaust systems to replace palladium, whose price XPD= has rocketed, said Trevor Raymond, the WPIC's director of research. 

Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished