(Adds closing in Tokyo, comments from Implats)
By Lewa Pardomuan
SINGAPORE, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Platinum hit a record above
$2,000 an ounce on Thursday as creaky power supply in main
producer South Africa forced another miner to report a drop in
output, prompting investors and automakers to step up buying.
Spot platinum <XPT=> jumped as high as $2,025 an ounce, up
from $1,985/1,995 an ounce late in New York on Wednesday. Gold
<XAU=> rose to $911.35/912.05 an ounce from 906.70/907.50 late
in New York.
Impala Platinum (Implats) <IMPJ.J>, the world's second
biggest platinum producer, said its production in the full-year
to end-June would decline to just under 2 million ounces,
compared to 2.026 million ounces in 2007 due to the power
crisis.
"The next six months are going to be tough. We expect to
produce just under two million ounces of platinum, we are
disappointed not to be able to maintain the previous level of
above two million," Chief Executive Officer, David Brown, told
Reuters.
Implats also posted weaker half-year headline earnings per
share and forecast "very tight market conditions" for platinum
due to the power crisis. []
Yukuji Sonoda, precious metals analyst at Daiichi
Commodities in Tokyo, said automakers were accumulating
platinum stocks to last up to six months on fears of further
price rises.
"Automobile companies are rushing to buy platinum. That's
the most important point. They are unwillingly buying platinum
ingots," he said, also pointing to investor purchases.
According to charts, platinum was overbought with the
14-day relative strength indicator standing above 80. But with
no end in sight to mining disruptions in South Africa, which
produces some 80 percent of the world's metal, there was still
room for gains.
South Africa's state-owned power utility has told miners it
would not be able to supply their full electricity needs for a
few years. []
Sources close to South Africa's state utility Eskom told
Reuters 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 <0#JPL:> on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange rose by its
daily 240 yen limit to a record high of 6,465 yen a gram.
Spot gold hovered below an all time high of $936.50 hit in
early February.
Industry-sponsored World Gold Council said on Wednesday
global gold demand in the fourth quarter fell 17 percent
year-on-year to 843.0 tonnes because of a sharp drop in
jewellery buying by top consumer India. []
Palladium <XPD=> rose to $441/446 an ounce from $430/435 an
ounce late in New York. Silver <XAG=> edged up to $17.39/17.44
an ounce from $17.28/17.33 in New York.
COMEX's April gold futures <GCJ8> rose $3.7 an ounce to
$913.9 an ounce.
The euro <EUR=> inched down to $1.4570, while the dollar
<JPY=> was little changed at 108.25 yen after surprisingly
strong U.S retail sales data provided some relief to concerns
the U.S. economy was slipping into a recession.
Precious metals prices at 0844 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg
Turnover
Spot Gold 910.80 4.70 +0.52 9.38
Spot Silver 17.40 0.14 +0.81 17.81
Spot Platinum 2005.00 20.00 +1.01 31.91
Spot Palladium 441.00 11.00 +2.56 19.84
TOCOM Gold 3195.00 80.00 +2.57 4.41
98903
TOCOM Platinum 6465.00 240.00 +3.86 21.09
5790
TOCOM Silver 611.80 25.70 +4.38 13.09
2534
TOCOM Palladium 1561.00 80.00 +5.40 15.54
10259
Euro/Dollar 1.4616
Dollar/Yen 108.24
TOCOM prices in yen per gram, except TOCOM silver which is
priced in yen per 10 grams. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Additional reporting by James Macharia in Johannesburg;
Editing by Sambit Mohanty)
