Palladium

Palladium, along with platinum, is one of the main "platinum group metals" (PGMs), and similar to platinum, palladium is both an industrial and an investment precious metal and palladium is available in the form of high quality investment bars and coins from leading precious metals refiners and mints.

With platinum being about 30 times rarer than gold, and palladium even rarer, the investment bar and coin market for platinum and palladium are, as expected, more limited than that of gold.

The palladium price has two main demand drivers, industrial demand and investment demand. In industry, palladium (and platinum) are used widely in auto catalytic converters to reduce exhaust emissions, since both precious metals work well as catalysts. Both metals are also used widely in electronic devices. As an investment precious metal, palladium is, like platinum, held as backing for physical Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and palladium is also fabricated into investment bars and coins.

On the supply side, the world’s two largest suppliers of palladium are South Africa and Russia with Canada and USA a distant third and fourth, Most palladium supply is a by-product, in South Africa a by-product of platinum mining, and in Russia a by-product of nickel mining. In company terms, Russia’s Norilsk Nickel and Sibanye-Stillwater Stillwater are two of the world’s largest palladium producers.

The four big Swiss precious metals refiners (Valcambi, PAMP, Argor-Heraeus and Metalor) along with German precious metals refinery Heraeus all fabricate investment grade palladium bars, and between them they produce a wide array of palladium bars in many weights from 1 gram up to 1 kg, as well as larger “LPPM Good Delivery” weights (which are defined by the London Platinum and Palladium Market (LPPM) as weights ranging from a minimum of 1 kg up to a maximum of 6 kgs). All palladium bars offered by BullionStar are from LPPM Good Delivery refiners and are of 999.5 purity. Palladium bullion coins are also produced by some of the world’s leading mints, such as the US Mint and Royal Canadian Mint.

As the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) has not exempted palladium bars and coins from Singapore’s Goods and Services Tax (GST), palladium bars and palladium coins offered by BullionStar have normal GST applied.