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PALLADIUM
HISTORY AND DEMAND
Palladium is lighter than platinum, with roughly the same density as silver. It carries many of the same investment features as gold, but there are times where gold, silver and platinum will go down and palladium goes up. This can be due to a booming economy and its ties to use in automobiles. It’s widely used in three-way catalytic converters, with roughly 75% of demand going toward car exhaust systems. Another approximately 13% of demand goes toward the electronics sector, with most of it being used in multi-layer ceramic capacitors, which store energy
in devices like cell phones, computers, lighting and high-voltage circuits. Like platinum, palladium has a very small niche market, especially when it comes to investment. Last year, roughly 20,000 (.2%) ounces went toward demand in physical investments, compared to platinum, where there were roughly 463,000 (5.6%) ounces that went towards physical investments; in other words, 28 times more investment in Platinum. Russia and South Africa are the largest palladium producers, with 75% of global mined production coming from these two countries.