PLATINUM RECYCLING: 2025 first quarter market review
Global recycling supply increased by 2% year-on-year to 372 koz, as improvement in autocatalyst recycling offset the 11% contraction in platinum jewellery scrap. Autocatalyst recyclers in both Europe and North America reported modest improvements in the availability of recycled material, partly due to higher new vehicle sales, particularly in the US, where the front-running of tariff implications boosted the availability of end-of-life (ELV) vehicles. A further contributing factor to the increase in spent catalyst recycling was the extension in China of its “large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-in initiative”.
In contrast, jewellery scrap supply in China declined, as the destocking of platinum jewellery in favour of gold, observed in Q1’24, did not reoccur. Elsewhere, jewellery scrap supply was either flat or recorded modest gains. Electronics recycling saw an increase to 19 koz, up 13% year-on-year, supported by higher collection rates especially in respect of e-scrap generated from hard-disk drives.
