Reuters

Recycling rates for autocatalyst metals platinum and palladium, have been driven lower in the past year not only by a price slide in the metals themselves, but also by a crash in the value of another raw material - steel.

With steel prices forecast to remain under heavy pressure this year in the face of over-supply and tepid demand, that could limit an expected rebound in the rate at which platinum group metals are recovered from catalysts.

Recycling slowed last year as more scrapped cars were stockpiled by recyclers awaiting better prices, and as fewer cars, which use platinum in their autocatalysts, were scrapped.

"The low steel price has stopped cars from entering the scrap profile in the first place, so there is a direct link between the low price and the amount of PGMs recycling," Johnson Matthey's general manager for market research Peter Duncan said.

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