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Feature: Analysts are considering whether automakers can tolerate high rhodium prices
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LONDON — On March 12, the rhodium base price continued to remain high at around US$25,000 per ounce—although it was about 15% lower than the record price a week ago—analysts are discussing that automakers can tolerate such use. How long will the high price of metal for automobile catalysts last? Automobile manufacturers may provide alternatives, especially if they can choose to replace some of the rhodium with higher loadings of platinum and/or palladium.
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Assessed on March 11, the price range of Platts New York dealers fell from US$26,850 to US$29,200 per ounce in the previous week to US$22,000 to US$29,000 per ounce on March 5-11.
Rohit Savant, head of precious metals research at CPM Group, told S&P Global Platts that automakers can tolerate high rhodium prices in a short period of time. If prices remain high, automakers may save money or reduce the amount of rhodium per unit.
Frugality is the use of technological advances to reduce the amount of materials required for a specific purpose. In automotive catalysts, this is where a lower loading of platinum group metals (rhodium, platinum or palladium) is used in a single automotive catalyst to produce similar results.
Savant added that automakers can also use selective reduction catalysts, "These catalysts are already commercially available and have been installed on many large vehicles."
The analyst said: “They are expensive and bulky to install, but with the high price of rhodium, it is expected that more efforts should be made to install these catalysts on more vehicles.”
Savant stated that platinum and palladium cannot be used as a substitute for rhodium in automotive catalysts because the first two platinum group metals target different emissions.
"Rhodium is the only substance that can reduce nitrogen oxide emissions, and nitrogen oxide emissions are an important focus of the new emission standards," the analyst said.
Rhona O'Connell, Head of Market Analysis for EMEA and Asia of StoneX Group, responded to this point. He told Platts: “No, in principle, because the conversion of NOx to N2 is a reduction process, while platinum and palladium are basically used for oxidation. Catalyst. Aftertreatment system, but I see [South African PGM producer] Sibanye hypothesized that palladium substitution might be feasible."
Heraeus Precious Metals is one of the world's largest refiners of platinum group metals. Its global trading director Henrik Marx said that for decades, the research and development teams of automotive catalyst manufacturers have been discussing alternative topics.
"Swapping one metal for another may be completely checked," Marx said. "I personally doubt whether this conversion can be done easily and quickly, let alone the qualification review time of the car manufacturer."
Trevor Raymond, research director of the World Platinum Investment Council, told Platts that when designing the automotive catalyst, it is custom-produced and matched with the engine of the automobile manufacturing vehicle.
Raymond said that in terms of whether replacements of platinum, palladium or rhodium have occurred in the recent past, automakers have not disclosed how many platinum group metals they have used in any particular vehicle.
"Catalyst manufacturers Johnson Matthey, BASF, and Umicore, they are all bound by confidentiality and cannot disclose [the information] because they know how many micrograms of metal are in the car. No one can confirm the substitute," Raymond said .
"In terms of news flow, when Sibanye-Stillwater announced their results, we got the news. They believe that by 2025, the replacement volume will increase by 1.5 million ounces of [platinum] per year. We are starting to obtain material numbers and more More anecdotes indicate that it has become very important, very fast. There is some news about news that is still confidential."
In March 2020, chemical expert BASF and South African PGM producers Sibanye-Stillwater and Impala Platinum jointly launched a new trimetallic catalyst that can partially replace light-duty gasoline vehicles with platinum without affecting emission standards Palladium.
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