Wednesday, 22nd February 2006 (4342 views)

Palladium jewellery consolidated its position in the market over the past 12 months, according to one expert.

Peter Ryan, an analyst with the GFMS precious metals consultancy, has told MineWeb that palladium jewellery "consolidated and gained some significant ground in 2005", as the price for the precious metal remains much lower than that of platinum.

However, demand for platinum jewellery has somewhat pushed palladium into the shade and Implats chief executive, Keith Rumble, has recently argued that palladium jewellery still has much to do to prove itself.

Speaking at the presentation of Implats' half-year profits for the second six months of 2005, Mr Rumble stated: "The jury is still out on the sustainability of palladium in the jewellery industry."

Mr Rumble appears to be referring to the fact that the majority of the demand for palladium went into fabricators' inventories rather than from consumers.

Implats' marketing executive, Derek Engelbrecht, added that this trend suggests it will be another year before the industry can say whether that demand has translated into "rings on fingers".

 

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