FACTS ‘N’ FIGURES — PCs power platinum demand

Platinum’s principle electrical application continues to be hard disks for personal computers.

During 1998, there was a further increase in the percentage of disks incorporating a platinum-cobalt layer to improve data storage capacity. As a result, the demand for platinum in these applications rose by around 6% in 1998, despite a slight decline in total disk production. However, demand in the next several years is expected to double.

Information storage requirements continue to expand at rapid rates, fueled by the growing use of computers for video and audio applications. Within two or three years, we expect all hard disks to contain platinum in their magnetic layers, compared with around 50% in 1998. At the same time, magnetoresistive (MR) technology is likely to be adopted by all computer hardware manufacturers. This relatively new technology improves hard disk data storage and retrieval. Also, some systems use platinum to enhance magnetic properties.

Further growth in PC sales should also add to demand, and we expect use of platinum in hard disks to rise to 500,000 oz. per year in the next four years from around 250,000 oz. in 1998.

The preceding appeared in Platinum 1999, a publication of Johnson Matthey.