A surge in the price of platinum, an element widely used as a catalyst in chemical synthesis, is putting chemical firms around the world under pressure to hike the price of their products.
The German specialty chemical maker Wacker Chemie says that it increased the price of some of its silicone products by more than 25% on Feb. 1 because of a sharp rise in the price of commodities, especially platinum. Wacker uses the noble metal as a catalyst for the curing of cross-linking silicone release agents and for addition-curing silicone products.
“The current price trend can no longer be compensated for through efficiency and other savings measures,” Tom Koini, Wacker’s head of silicones, says in a press release. “We have reached a point at which we have to pass on the increased costs to the market.”
Platinum’s daily price hit an all-time high of $91,176/kg on Jan. 26, up from an average price of about $41,000/kg in 2025. By Feb. 4, prices had dropped to about $74,000/kg.
“High and volatile prices for platinum may require adjustments to product pricing in select value chains”
The high platinum prices could have a substantial impact across the chemical industry. “Platinum plays an important role in catalysts used in several parts of the chemicals industry,” Sebastian Bray, a stock analyst for Berenberg Bank, says in an email. “It is not often a large cost component when making chemicals in my experience, but high and volatile prices for platinum may require adjustments to product pricing in select value chains.”
The World Platinum Investment Council, an organization set up to stimulate demand for platinum, in a report published Jan. 22 flagged a supply deficit and an uptick in investors’ platinum buying due to macropolitical uncertainty as factors pushing up the price of the metal. Above-ground stocks have fallen by 49% since 2022, the council states. It predicts that the current high price will support supply, especially recycling, and will erode some demand.
Platinum’s price surge
The catalyst maker Evonik Industries says the price of its platinum-containing catalysts will not go up because its customers own the precious metal in them. But such catalysts will become more expensive for the customer because of losses during synthesis, Evonik says in an emailed response to questions. The company says it works to increase the efficiency of its catalysts so that less precious metal is required. It also offers catalysts that don’t contain precious metals.
Even before the recent price surge, efforts were growing to replace platinum and other noble metals. According to a review of the scientific literature by CAS (like C&EN, part of the American Chemical Society), the number of research papers published on noble metal substitutes is growing, especially in the field of electrocatalysis involving fuel cells and water electrolysis.
The less costly transition metals on the first row of the periodic table—from scandium to zinc—are central to efforts to replace platinum in catalysis, energy, and materials applications, according to the CAS report.
In a recent study, researchers at the University of Rochester identified a tungsten carbide–based catalyst that could replace platinum in hydrogenation reactions.
Alex Scott is a C&EN business reporter covering all chemistry-related issues in Europe.
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