Russia’s Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel), the world’s largest producer of palladium and high-grade nickel, expects the palladium market to be balanced this year, citing an “unprecedented” contraction of end-use demand as the automotive industry faces its worst crisis in decades.
This will be the first time in many years that palladium will shift from a deficit to a balanced market.
The miner forecasts that demand for palladium – which is mostly used in catalytic converters to control emissions from internal combustion engines in vehicles – will contract by 16% to 9.1-million ounces in 2020.
Car sales are estimated to plunge 22% to 70-million units in 2020, while other palladium-consumers, such as dental, chemical, electronics and jewellery industries are also expected to remain depressed, the company states.