Platinum · Origin deep dive

Cleared loco London and loco Zurich, with Swiss vaults and refiners — Valcambi, PAMP, Metalor — anchoring physical liquidity.

LPPM Good Delivery plate and ingot, 99.95% minimum, from accredited refiners on the platinum Good Delivery list.

Book-entry transfers between vaults with airfreight for physical moves; sponge for industry travels separately from investment ingot.

Autocatalyst fabricators, industrial glass and chemical users, ETFs and bullion banks running lease books.

Weak natural seasonality; lease rates and availability tighten with auto-contract deliveries and ETF flows.

South African supply disruptions, lease-rate spikes and investment-flow reversals move loco premiums and sponge-ingot spreads.

Imports clear through licensed banks into SGE-linked vaults, gating supply to Chinese fabricators via quota.

SGE-deliverable 99.95 platinum ingot and sponge for jewellery, glass-fiber bushings and chemical catalysts.

Airfreighted from Zurich and Johannesburg under import licences; premium widens when quotas lag fabrication demand.

Jewellery fabricators enjoying a revival as gold's price soars, plus glass-fiber, petrochemical and emerging hydrogen users.

Jewellery restocking before Lunar New Year and wedding seasons lifts premiums; industrial demand runs steadier.

Import-quota policy, jewellery substitution away from expensive gold and glass-industry capex cycles drive the China premium.

CME-approved depositories in the New York area, connected to Zurich and London stocks by airfreight arbitrage.

NYMEX-deliverable 50-ounce-basis plate and ingot at 99.95%, interchangeable with LPPM Good Delivery metal.

EFP arbitrage flies metal transatlantic when the futures basis exceeds freight, financing and vaulting costs.

Futures arbitrageurs, bullion banks and US industrial hedgers managing exchange versus loco exposure.

Basis moves with contract rolls and speculative positioning; the 2025 tariff scare showed how violently it can dislocate.

US tariff-inclusion headlines, depository stock levels and funding costs whip the NYMEX-to-spot basis around.

Refined at Rustenburg and Springs precious-metal refineries, then airfreighted out through Johannesburg's OR Tambo cargo terminal.

Good Delivery ingot and industrial sponge from Valterra (formerly Anglo Platinum), Impala and Sibanye-Stillwater refineries.

Producer term contracts deliver sponge and ingot by secure airfreight to Zurich vaults and industrial customers worldwide.

Autocatalyst makers, industrial fabricators and bullion banks on long-term producer contracts.

Southern-winter wage-negotiation rounds and Eskom load-shedding risk cluster supply scares mid-year; smelter rebuilds add lumpiness.

A strained PGM basket price below marginal cost drives shaft closures; power cuts and smelter outages jolt supply.

Co-product platinum refined at Krasnoyarsk's Krastsvetmet flows east and to non-Western hubs since accreditation was pulled.

Technically fine metal, but Russian refiners lost LPPM Good Delivery status in 2022, impairing Western marketability.

Sold under bilateral contracts into China, the Gulf and domestic use rather than through London-Zurich clearing.

Chinese industrial users and non-Western traders absorb tonnage Western autocatalyst chains now avoid.

Flows follow Nornickel's nickel-driven production schedule and Arctic logistics, not platinum-specific seasonality.

Sanctions scope, accreditation status and buyer self-sanctioning depth determine the Russian platinum discount.