Palladium
The price of palladium has been going bonkers because it is mainly used in catalytic converters for petrol-powered cars.
Its price has shot up by a whopping 140% since 2016 and demand for the metal has shot up as customers have abandoned deisel-powered cars in favour of petrol, hybrid and electric powered ones.
Over 70% of palladium production goes to making catalytic converters and there has been a shortage of it versus demand.
This is great for palladium suppliers now, but clearly this state of affairs won’t last forever as electric cars don’t use catalysts. Mind you, although electric car sales are the fastest rising category I think there will be plenty of good times yet for the next few years.
Safestore
The next thing I wanted to talk about was Safestore, the UK’s number one storage provider.
Basically, it’s doing really well at the moment because of the increasing number of companies stockpiling parts and products ahead of Brexit.
It more than doubled its profits from last year and rivals Big Yellow and Lock’n Store have also done well surfing the same trend.
I think that this is likely to continue UNLESS Brexit is abandoned – but I just wonder whether this will peter out in the second half in the absence of any obvious catalysts. IF Brexit is abandoned, however, the party will be over.
I just hope that these companies don’t get too excited by their good fortune at the moment and use the extra cash to over-expand.
