As the countdown to the 2024 CIBJO Congress in Shanghai continues, the third pre-Congress Special Report has been issued. The CIBJO Precious Metals Commission, led by Vaishali Banerjee, Managing Director of PGI India, prepared the study, which provides a comprehensive review of the gold, platinum, palladium, and silver markets during the last year.
According to Banerjee, the movement of precious metals varied, but the patterns that influenced prices and demand came from outside the jewelry sector. Some were investment-driven, while others were industrial, with the rapid change of electric vehicle manufacturing being a significant component.
“Investment was the overarching theme for gold in 2023 both for institutional and retail investors,” according to her. “The gold price reached many record highs this year and has maintained that momentum. This is expected to cause a decline in investment and consumption demand by 2024.”
“For platinum, automative and industrial demand led the growth in 2023,” Ms. Vaishali remarked. Jewellery had a slight dip due to lower demand in China. “Platinum’s price is expected to stay range bound at similar levels as 2023 and, while the growth of automative demand is forecasted to be modest, the jewellery demand is set to recover in 2024.”
Palladium had a difficult year and is expected to continue to drop in 2024, she said, but silver had a year of strong industrial demand last year and is expected to have slight growth in demand from both the industrial and jewellery sectors in 2024.
The report also focuses on environmental and social concerns, which are becoming increasingly important in shaping investment and policy decisions. Financial markets are developing ESG indices to build ethical investing, and rising consumer and societal expectations are driving demand for responsibly sourced metal for precious jewellery.
“Across categories there has been a significant focus on initiatives to build sustainability and responsibility for the precious metals industry,” Banerjee pointed out.