"LONDON - Less than a year after tearing up a $57 million annual supply contract with its main buyer, Anglo American Platinum is struggling to implement a new strategy of selling directly to end-users against a backdrop of weak prices, sources say. The world's top platinum producer, known as Amplats, late last year ended a long-standing deal through which it had sold the bulk of its output at a discount to refiner Johnson Matthey, in exchange for marketing. The idea was to make more money by cutting out the middleman, going direct to traders and carmakers and seizing profit opportunities by financing or lending metal and arbitraging different locations and grades."continues
and
"Sources said Amplats has been replacing long-term contracts with carmakers with shorter-term arrangements based on the London spot price." continues....
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could this change be affecting buying demand or price?
Its only a $57 Million contract? Seems low to me.
I discovered/heard an audio interview saying that the paper futures price for platinum was approx 10% cheaper than the actual metal price...
Amplats direct sales of the metal must be adding pricing competition to their own commodity.
so what price are we discussing? paper futures or the metal?
also read that some of these funds buying into mines will sell the metal for fund units, as I understood it, which could change demand or create stock piles?
also noticed that Lonmin had been sending sales through Bermuda with some tax issues raised during the Farlam enquiry and that has been in the news of late...
