Copper prices hit three-week low on doubts over China’s pro-growth push
A Reuters poll showed that China's economy will likely expand 4.8% in 2024, below the government's 5% target.
The Guangzhou Futures Exchange (GFEX) is expected to launch its first platinum and palladium futures contracts in China in the first quarter of 2025, Weibin Deng, head of Asia Pacific at the World Platinum Investment Council, told a conference.
The contracts will be the first domestic price-hedging mechanism for platinum and palladium in the world’s second-largest economy, where the metals are used by auto makers and other industries, including jewellery and investment products.
The GFEX declined to comment.
The World Platinum Investment Council, whose five members are major platinum producers, hopes hedging will help revive demand for platinum jewellery, Deng told the London Bullion Market Association’s annual conference in Miami on Monday.
Hedging by jewellery makers could reduce the premium they charge clients and the discount on buybacks of jewellery and platinum products, which could boost demand, the council said.
While China is the key market for platinum group metals, platinum jewellery demand in the country has slumped 79% from a peak of around 2 million troy ounces in 2014 amid a downturn in consumer preference for the metal.
(By Polina Devitt and Amy Lv; Editing by Sonali Paul)
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