Platinum Supply Worries Stay

Reuters
SINGAPORE -- Platinum hit another record high on Thursday, moving closer to $2,000 ounce, as power supply problems in main producer South Africa persisted.

Spot platinum jumped as high as $1,995 an ounce before slipping to $1,988/1,998 an ounce, still up from $1,985/1,995 an ounce late in New York on Wednesday.

Senior sources close to South African state utility Eskom told Reuters that it was considering a complete power supply buy-back from all of the country's aluminium smelters plus one in Mozambique for the balance of 2008 as part of a multi-strand approach to solving the country's power crisis.

The benchmark platinum futures contract for December delivery on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange rose by its daily 240 yen limit to a record high of 6,465 yen a gram on Thursday, catching up with cash market.

Gold rose to $907.20/908.00 an ounce from $906.70/907.50 late in New York.

Industry-sponsored World Gold Council (WGC) said in a report on Wednesday that global gold demand in the fourth quarter dropped 17 percent year-on-year to 843.0 tonnes due to a sharp drop in jewellery buying by top consumer India.

Palladium rose to $435/440 an ounce from $430/435 an ounce late in New York.

COMEX's April gold futures edged up $0.4 an ounce to $910.6 an ounce.

Silver edged up to $17.31/17.36 an ounce from $17.28/17.33 in New York.

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