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purchases in Japan fell 6.7% last year to 5.35 mil-
lion units – the lowest total since 1972 – and a fur-
ther modest decline is anticipated in 2008.

US sales fell 2.9% in December to give an adjust-
ed annual selling rate approaching 16 million units.
General Motors and Ford have announced produc-
tion cuts of, respectively, 11% and 7.4% for the first
quarter of 2008, while Chrysler has announced shift
reductions at a number of its plants. With the fall-
out from a softening housing market, higher gas
prices, growing credit concerns and an anticipated
easing in the broader economy in the USA this year,

domestic car sales in 2008 are projected to slip
below 16 million units for the first time in a decade.

Higher fuel costs and consumer uncertainty lim-
ited car sales growth in the EU to 1.1% in January-
November last year – equivalent to total sales of
14.8 million units – despite impressive gains among
the newer members and developing nations of the
Union.

Reducing PGM content

Given the sharp price escalation affecting, in par-
ticular, platinum and rhodium over recent years,
vehicle manufacturers are continually striving to
reduce the PGM content of converters. Improved
engineering, more effective ‘thrifting’ programmes
and a greater substitution of palladium will no
doubt result in some measure of savings for manu-
facturers.

Mazda Motor claims to have developed the first
single-nanotechnology catalyst engineered to
reduce the required amount of platinum and palla-
dium by as much as 70% to 90% when compared to
existing converters. Meanwhile, Nissan Motors has
reported on plans to introduce a new gas-powered
vehicle in late 2008 or early 2009 that, it says, will
conform to environmental regulations while using
only half the current amount of PGMs.
Nanotechnology techniques will also allow the com-
pany to use lower quantities of PGMs in the coating
process, it adds.

However, the projected scope of many recent
‘breakthrough’ technologies is likely to be limited at
least in the medium term. Tighter emissions stan-
dards and continued growth in global car production
will more than offset the gains achieved in lowering
the per unit loadings of PGMs in new converters.

Jewellery demand

Demand for jewellery manufacture accounted for
around 20% of total platinum consumption in 2007,
equivalent to around 1.7 million ounces. According
to research by GFMS, consumption of both plat-
inum and palladium for jewellery applications was
either flat or only marginally better in 2007. And
given the record prices for platinum, similar offtake
levels are anticipated from this sector in 2008.

As regards palladium, Chinese buyers account
for around 75% of total worldwide jewellery
demand, with further – albeit modest – gains pro-
jected for 2008 on the back of the nation’s continued
economic expansion and growth in individual
wealth. Palladium jewellery demand is projected to
account for approximately 1 million ounces this
year, or 12% of total offtake of the metal.

Recycling International • April 2008 53

P R E C I O U S M E T A L S

Diamond Crypto –
a US$ 1.3 million
mobile phone

Austrain jeweler JSC Ancort
company and Mr. Peter Aloisson
the world famous Austrian jew-
eler, the designer and the inven-
tor of the luxury mobile phones
have signed an agreement to
start a project on the creation of
a luxurious Diamond Crypto
Smartphone which will cost
US$ 1.3 million. All metal parts
are casted in solid platinum 950,
besides the Ancort logo and the
navigation key which are made
of 18 carat rose gold. All keys of
the keypad are being produced
in solid platinum and then hand
engraved and then hand-
coloured. As an option, black
rhodium treatment of the plat-
inum is possible which give the
phone a black, shiny look. Each
side carries twenty-five ½ carat
princess cut five blue diamonds
(total 50 diamonds, 10 of them
are blue diamond).

A-1 Specialized Services &
Supplies, Inc.

The authors of this article, Patrick Magilligan,
Ashok Kumar and Rajesh Seth work for A-1
Specialized Services & Supplies, which claims to
be the world’s leading recycler of platinum group
metals from automotive catalysts. Based
at a 350 000-square-foot facility in Croydon,
Pennsylvania, USA, the company has two princi-
pal lines of business: the processing of salvage
automotive catalytic converters obtained from
dismantlers, scrap yards, parts dealers and man-
ufacturers in order to recover platinum, palladi-
um and rhodium; and the marketing and sale to
consumers of these same metals in commodity-
grade form. These salvage converters are drawn
from as far afield as Europe, South America and
Asia. A-1 also salvages other PGM-containing
materials such as platinum spark plugs, oxygen
sensors and non-automotive catalysts.

www.a-1specialized.com

It is estimated that total PGMs recovered from
recycled automotive catalysts grew at a com-
pound rate of 14.5% to 2.27 million ounces
for the five-year period that will end in 2008.

Among other metals, rhodium is used in the manufacturing of a Rolex watch.

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