Shanghai feedback day 2: SA PGMs | Europe

Research evidence excerpt

Shanghai feedback day 2: SA PGMs | Europe

Update

July 7, 2026 02:43 PM GMT

RMB Morgan Stanley Proprietary Limited+MSA PGMs | Europe Brian Morgan

Equity Analyst

Shanghai feedback day 2 Brian.Morgan3@rmbmorganstanley.comChristopher Nicholson +27 11 587-0803

Equity Strategist and Analyst

Christopher.Nicholson@rmbmorganstanley.com +27 11 587-0816

EEMEA - Metals & Mining

Europe

Industry View In-Line

On Tuesday we heard from several speakers, talking on metals exchanges,

automotive demand, various individuals involved in industrial demand applications,

hydrogen and analysts. On the margin, the new information was more constructive

for metal demand than we expected, particularly from industrial applications. We

may be underestimating the demand impulse from datacentres.

A few key points:

• Metals exchanges spoke about having seen surging trading activity in 2025,

with CME physically delivering an unprecedented 20000lots/1Moz. Activity

out of Asia is particularly strong.

• Industrial applications: we came away more optimistic on the prospects for

PGMs in industrial applications (we already expect GDP+ levels of demand

growth in our S/D models). One company executive in the medical field

spoke of 16% growth in medical devices, driven by the ageing population,

such as PGM alloys being applied used in stents. The prospects for Ru and Pt

in AI applications (storage, memory, semiconductors) remains very strong. As

chips gets thinner, PGMs show less resistance than other metals. Coal to

chemicals shows good promise with a new 2.4Mt ethylene plant requiring

93koz Pd and another plant following in 2028. Its not all good news of

course, with one speaker mentioning attempts to thrift Ru in Nylon 6

production.

• On hydrogen: fuel costs aren't quite low enough yet to trigger wide-scale