http://blogs.marketwatch.com/t…num-and-palladium-report/
Russia and South Africa plan to create an OPEC-type cartel to coordinate exports, according to a report Wednesday from Bloomberg News.
Together those nations hold about 80% of the world’s platinum-group metal reserves.
“It can be called an OPEC,” Russian National Resources Minister Sergey Donskoy said late Tuesday, in an interview with Bloomberg in Durban.
Donskoy said the plan is the coordinate actions to expand the markets and since prices depend on the structure of the market, the platinum and palladium “OPEC” would form the structure of the market.
“It looks like a cartel concept would be formed to, over the long run, control supply, promote price stability at a premium to current platinum prices,” said Jeffrey Wright, managing director at Global Hunter Securities.
“Both South Africa and Russia need to allocate capital to their respective mining industries and believe through greater control of platinum-palladium markets they can achieve higher prices, which would result in securing the capital required to maintain production,” he said.