Ruthenium Blazes into Orbit! January 12, 2007
Posted by gaussling in Chemical Industry, Chemistry, Chemistry Blogs.trackback
Wow!! It is unbelievable! Since wednesday, 1/10/07 Engelhard Material Services, a subsidiary of BASF Catalysts, has offered ruthenium at US$700 per troy ounce. It is astounding. The rationale is that physical demand outstrips supply. Gold bobs up and down with the market noise at US$621, platinum plods along at $1140, and perky rhodium is up to $5850.
Gotta think that this is hard on the people doing ruthenium metathesis processing. I’m sure that end-users are scrutinizing their technology. If it is truly physical demand that is doing this, I’ll guess that the price may stay high for a long time. Zowie!
Update- I have already commented on one possible reason for the uptick in Ru pricing. The overall cause may be the overlap of many influences. Given that Ru does not have significant Jewelry applications, and it has not been the subject of a lot of PGM investor speculation (like Pt, Pd, or Au) in the past, the cause seems to be actual physical demand. In other words, someone out there needs a large amount of this metal for some application. At some point the price will probably be influenced by speculators to a large degree, if not already. Others are more tied into this than I am. Try looking at Johnson Matthey or BASF Catalysts (formerly Engelhard).
Well, OK. I gushed a bit. But I remember a few years ago when it was $65/troy oz. This has to be causing lots of consternation in some circles.