South African Electricity Another Worry For Platinum Traders

Just when they probably thought things couldn’t become any more challenging, “traders of platinum group metals have another factor from South Africa to focus upon in the coming weeks – the availability of electricity,” reports Kitco.

“For some time now, much of the market’s focus was on the labor unrest in the country, with a strike already occurring against one platinum producers and the potential for more.”

“Now, the country’s main utility, Eskom, will be operating on an unusually tight reserve margin of 1,000 megawatts until April while it conducts maintenance on power plants, the firm said late last week. Still, the utility maintained that it was not planning load-shedding.”

“’The PGMs will be on alert this week after South African power producer Eskom announced last Thursday power supply could be tight in the coming days just when most mining operations return to full operating capacity,’ said a research note from Morgan Stanley.”

In metal price news for precious metals…
On Friday, January 10, Indian silver fell by 2.3 percent, making it the day’s biggest mover. Japanese silver closed 0.6 percent lower. The price of Chinese silver fell 0.3 percent. The price of US silver is back up, rising by 0.1 percent last Friday to close.

Following a 0.6 percent rise last Friday, the price of Chinese gold bullion closed. Following a two-day drop, the price of US gold bullion increased by 0.1 percent. Japanese gold bullion prices rose 0.1 percent. Indian gold bullion ended the day, after the 0.1 percent drop last Friday.

After a 0.5 percent increase, Japanese platinum bar finished the day. Chinese platinum bar saw little change in its price last Friday. The price of US platinum bar showed little movement last Friday.

The price of Japanese palladium bar ended a two-day climb. US palladium bar held its value last Friday. The price of Chinese palladium bar showed little movement last Friday.