Palladium, platinum and rhodium markets all in deficit in 2019 – Johnson Matthey

LONDON (Reuters) - The roughly 10-million ounce a year global palladium market was undersupplied by 1.2 million ounces in 2019, its biggest deficit in five years, specialist materials company Johnson Matthey <JMAT.L> estimated on Wednesday.

The 8-million ounce a year platinum market saw a 203,000-ounce shortfall last year after surpluses in 2017 and 2018, the company said in a report.

The 1.1 million ounce rhodium market, meanwhile, was undersupplied by 26,000 ounces, the first shortfall since 2014, Johnson Matthey said.

All three metals are used in catalytic converters fitted to vehicle exhausts to reduce harmful engine emissions. Johnson Matthey is a leading autocatalyst manufacturer.

It said its numbers for 2019 were preliminary estimates.

(Reporting by Peter Hobson, editing by Louise Heavens)