What makes palladium different
Supply: Russia (largely as a nickel by-product) and South Africa together account for the overwhelming majority of mine output — no other major metal depends so heavily on two producers, which is why sanctions risk and mine economics dominate the supply story. Demand: gasoline-engine autocatalysts are the market, full stop — which ties palladium's fate to combustion-vehicle production, tightening emissions standards, and the pace at which automakers substitute cheaper platinum back into catalysts. That substitution channel, plus recycling from scrapped vehicles, is the market's pressure valve, and it works slowly enough that palladium has delivered some of the most violent squeezes in metals history.
OunceDesk coverage status
A Palladium Stress Index — inventories, lease and futures structure, Russian and South African supply signals, automotive demand — is in methodology development under the same rules as the rest of the family: no defensible methodology, no published score. Live pricing here is real today; deeper coverage follows the data.