Theft of catalytic converters boosted by the price of rhodium
Audio 01:52
Rhodium is used in the composition of catalytic converters in cars.
(Illustrative Image) LightRocket via Getty Images - SOPA Images
By: Marie-Pierre Olphand Follow
5 mins
It is worth 14 times more expensive than gold today.
We are talking about rhodium which is used in the composition of catalytic converters in cars.
A rare metal at the origin of new traffic, particularly in the United States and Canada.
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If your car backfires, it may be an indirect but very concrete effect of the explosion in rhodium prices, a sign in any case that you no longer have a catalytic converter.
This rare metal is part of their composition like its palladium and platinum cousins.
More than 80% of its use is also linked to demand from the automotive industry.
And this continues to grow, with the strengthening of anti-pollution standards imposed by States on manufacturers.
Very resistant, rhodium is particularly effective in cleaning vehicles of their polluting fumes.
Moreover, he has no known substitute to date.
Thousands of thefts of catalytic converters in 2020 in the USA
A catalytic converter contains less than 0.1g of rhodium, but at the current price this has given some ideas.
The price of rhodium has indeed approached $ 30,000 an ounce last week.
Yesterday it had fallen back to $ 24,000, still 14 times more than an ounce of gold.
What motivate crooks and thieves, to crawl under a car.
In the United States, thousands of catalytic converters were reportedly stolen last year, according to the
Washington post.
In recent weeks, the Canadian press has also reported thefts by the hundreds, whether from parking lots, mechanical workshops and even from new car dealers.
A still tight market and prices that will remain high
This year, the market should still be in deficit, estimates Mathieu Leguerinel, analyst at BRGM, the Bureau of Geological and Mining Research, with prices which should remain relatively high.
Prices that have been boosted in recent months by a messed up mining activity in South Africa.
2020 was marked by recurring power cuts, a failure of several months in a foundry of the Anglo American Platinum company and of course the pandemic.
Enough to provoke a surge of fever on the rhodium market.
However, the country provides 82% of rhodium production according to the latest figures from the BRGM.
The small rhodium market, since we are talking about 20 to 25 tonnes per year, is therefore very dependent on South African hazards.
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