Platinum: Correlation
Prices it moves with, and why
Platinum is mined mostly in South Africa and Russia. Catalytic converters, jewellery, glass and chemical catalysts and investment set demand, so car output and the shift to electric vehicles matter, as do South African power and mining problems.
Market price World Bank Pink Sheet: Platinum $/troy oz · monthly, Jan 2006 to Sep 2026What its price moves with
Selected linkPlatinum and Silver
Monthly changes 0.74 strong correlation 12-month changes 0.79 strong correlation Last 5 years 0.85 monthly changes Lead or lag none No clear lead or lag Price function, Jan 2006 to Sep 2026 Platinum ≈ 461.7 × (Silver)0.31 R² 0.24 On this fit, a 10% higher silver price goes with a 3.0% higher platinum price over the long run. Units: $/troy oz and $/troy oz. The fit is loose, so treat the function as a rough guide.Chart: Platinum and Silver prices rebased to 100 at Jan 2006, log scale
Both prices rebased to 100 at Jan 2006, on a log scale so equal percentage moves look the same size.Chart: Platinum price against Silver price, monthly, log scales, with fitted line
Each dot is one month; paler dots are older (2006), darker dots recent (2026); the ringed dot is the latest month. The dashed line is the fitted price function. Both axes are logarithmic.Platinum and palladium do the same job in catalytic converters, and carmakers shift toward the cheaper one over time. When palladium soared, makers put more platinum into petrol car catalysts. Palladium has no free price series here.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Catalytic converters are platinum's largest use, so car production and emission rules drive demand. This site uses the platinum price as the autocatalyst proxy, so they share one series and no statistics are shown.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.Silver and platinum react similarly to industrial growth and investment flows, and both are cheaper relatives of gold. Monthly moves correlate at 0.74 and yearly at 0.79, platinum's strongest link here, with 0.85 in the last five years.
strong co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsPlatinum is held as an investment and sold as jewellery like gold, so the dollar and interest rates affect both, but its industrial side weakens the tie. Monthly changes correlate at 0.56 and yearly at 0.67.
moderate co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsMost platinum demand depends on combustion-engine vehicles, especially diesel trucks. The proxy is a US car price index, which follows inflation rather than car volumes, so the correlation is slightly negative (-0.15 monthly).
little or none co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsProton exchange membrane fuel cells and electrolysers use platinum catalysts, so hydrogen adoption could replace some lost car demand. That market is still small and has no price series here.
Not enough overlapping price history to measure.How to read these numbers
Correlation of monthly changes (the number in the coloured pill) compares how much each price moved, month by month, since 2006 or the first month both series exist. It runs from −1 to +1: near +1 the two usually rise and fall in the same months, near 0 there is no link, and a negative number means they tend to move in opposite directions. Above 0.7 is strong, 0.4 to 0.7 moderate, 0.2 to 0.4 weak.
12-month changes compare year-on-year moves, which shows whether two prices share the same cycles even when the month-to-month noise differs.
Price function is a straight-line fit of the two prices on logarithmic scales: price ≈ k × (partner price)β. β is how much this price moves, in per cent, for a 1% move in the partner over the whole period, and R² is the share of the variation the fit explains. Two prices that both drift up with inflation can fit well without any real link, so read it together with the monthly correlation.
Lead or lag checks whether the monthly correlation is clearly higher when one price is shifted by 1 to 6 months.
Correlation is not cause. The reasons on each card explain the economic link; the numbers show how strongly it has shown up in prices. Proxy series are US producer price indexes or related prices and can blur the real link.
Data: World Bank Commodity Price Data (Pink Sheet), October 2026; US Bureau of Labor Statistics producer price indexes, IMF primary commodity prices and US EIA prices via FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, retrieved November 2026. Calculations by this site.