(Adds quotes, updates prices)
By Veronica Brown
LONDON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Platinum prices hit a record high
for the 10th successive trading day on Wednesday as power supply
problems for mines in top producer South Africa continued to
worry the market.
Spot platinum <XPT=> spiked almost 3 percent to a record
$1,970/1,980 per ounce by 1713 GMT.
That compared with $1,920/1,925 in New York on Tuesday when
the market sold off sharply on profit-taking, while U.S. COMEX
futures surpassed the $2,000 milestone to hit a record
$2,001.40.
Spot prices are now up almost 30 percent on the year so far,
after a surge of 37 percent last year.
Dealers cited a Bloomberg report saying South Africa's
state-owned power utility Eskom Holdings Ltd will not be able to
supply mines with more than 90 percent power until 2012.
[]
South Africa, responsible for roughly 80 percent of world
platinum output, has been beset by production problems, with
mine closures due to accidents dominating last year and the
power crisis hobbling operations more recently.
"There are still issues and problems with production still
affected, gold production too by the same token, and this is
causing the spike," said Peter Hillyard, head of metal sales at
AMZ Investment Bank.
Traders and analysts say prices of the metal, used in
jewellery and to clean auto exhaust emissions, could only rise
further under current circumstances.
"The ongoing risk of further bottlenecks in energy supply in
South Africa is creating the basis for further upside potential.
News on the supply side remains worrying," Commerzbank
commodities analyst Eugen Weinberg said in a note to clients.
LACKLUSTRE GOLD
Gold prices, by contrast, lacked the momentum seen in
platinum, with prices looking set for a period of consolidation
from recent rallies.
Spot gold was last quoted at $908.80/909.60 per ounce,
having earlier dropped to $885.30, compared with $907.70/908.50
quoted in New York late on Tuesday.
"Really we should be in for a time of sideways action to
lower in gold -- a time of reflection to see how interest rate
cuts pan out, how policy changes that have been implemented pan
out and what happens generally with the economy," said Simon
Weeks, director of gold sales at Bank of Nova Scotia.
"There's a bias probably on the downside, simply because we
need to unwind some of the concentration that we have at the
moment," he added.
Gold fell on Tuesday after billionaire investor Warren
Buffett said he had offered to reinsure $800 billion of debt
guaranteed by bond insurers, easing some worries about further
fallout from the credit crisis. []
Currency fundamentals were less favourable for gold, as the
euro lost upward momentum against the dollar.
A stronger U.S. currency makes dollar-priced gold less
attractive for non-U.S. investors.
On physical markets, purchases from jewellers and investors
started to pick up as prices moved away from historic highs, but
business remained slow in main consumer India despite the
wedding season. []
In other bullion markets, COMEX's April gold futures <GCJ8>
were down 50 cents at $910.60 an ounce.
Palladium <XPD=> also lacked the momentum seen on platinum,
easing to $430/435 an ounce from $434/437 an ounce late in New
York on Tuesday and off a 6-year high of $447 an ounce.
Silver <XAG=> rose to $17.34/17.39 an ounce from
$17.13/17.18 in New York -- but was off Tuesday's 27-year high
of $17.60 an ounce.
(Additional reporting by Lewa Pardomuan in Singapore;
editing by Chris Johnson)
