Experts see higher precious metals pricing in 2018

Jared Paben

7 years ago

Credit: Maurizio Targhetta

Market analysts say 2018 could be a golden year – or perhaps a silver and platinum one – for the prices of precious metals recovered from scrap electronics.

A new report by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) captures 2018 price predictions for gold, silver, platinum and palladium from two dozen experts. The prices matter to electronics recycling companies because it affects what they’re paid when they ship components containing precious metals to smelters and refiners. The report was first covered by Recycling International.

Price estimates vary widely in this year’s document, which means “we could be in for a dramatic year in precious metals,” according to LBMA. But when you average the predictions, the numbers are roughly in line with what the markets paid during the first half of January 2018.

The following are the averages of what they anticipate for this year, as well as actual prices from the first half of January 2018 and all of 2017:

Gold ($1,318 per ounce): This prediction is flat from actual pricing seen during the first half of January 2018. It’s up 4.9 percent from the 2017 average price.
Silver ($17.81 per ounce): This prediction is up 4 percent from the first half of January and up 4.5 percent from the 2017 average.
Platinum ($1,000 per ounce): This prediction is up 3.1 percent from pricing in the first half of January and up 5.4 percent from the 2017 average.
Palladium ($1,080 per ounce): This prediction is down 1.5 percent from the first half of January numbers but up 24.3 percent from the 2017 average.

The report also noted how accurate the analysts’ predictions were last year: For gold, their average was off only 0.1 percent, for silver it was off 4.2 percent, for platinum it was off 6.9 percent and for palladium it was off 12.3 percent.

LBMA followed the release of the survey with a debate among analysts.

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