Platinum prices to bottom out, supply shortfalls to return in 2016: report

London

PLATINUM prices are likely to have posted their lows for the year, GFMS analysts at Thomson Reuters said in a report on Thursday, with a return to supply shortfalls set to hold the metal at an average US$1,005 an ounce in 2016.

The price of the white metal, used principally in jewellery and autocatalysts, hit a seven-year low of US$806.31 an ounce in January. The market is set to move back to a deficit in 2016 after a jump in mine supply pushed it into a surplus last year, GFMS said in its Platinum Group Metals Survey 2016.