Platinum price hits a record high

Platinum set a record high on Tuesday [18 Dec 2007] as strong industrial demand and market tightness prompted speculators and consumers to heavily buy the metal. Spot platinum rose as high as $1,505 an ounce and was quoted at $1,505/1,510 an ounce by 1051 GMT, compared with $1,494/1,498 in New York late on Monday.

Supply disruptions following deadly mining accidents in South Africa, the world's main platinum producer, and growing investor demand for the metal, mainly used in jewellery and to clean car exhaust fumes, have supported prices this year. The market tightness also rose with strong inflows of the metal into exchange-traded funds. Platinum held by London-based ETF Securities has surged to 105,000 ounces from around 35,700 ounces in early November, industry sources said.

(2007-12-19 13:04:26 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

Nanosolar 'prints' first flexible solar cells

news.com :

Well-financed solar start-up Nanosolar on Tuesday [18 Dec 2007] said it has started shipping its flexible thin-film solar cells, meeting its own deadline and marking a milestone for alternative solar-cell materials. The release of Nanosolar's first products is significant because the company develops a process to print solar cells made out of CIGS, or copper indium gallium selenide, a combination of elements that many companies are pursuing as an alternative to silicon.

The 5-year-old company has raised more than $100 million in financing and has drawn in Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page as investors. Because of the high price of silicon, several companies are making thin-film cells from CIGS, but a number have run into technical problems. CEO Martin Roscheisen said the manufacturing process the company has developed will enable it to eventually deliver solar electricity for less than a dollar per watt, which would be significantly cheaper than fossil fuel sources of power generation. In a previous interview, Roscheisen said all of Nanosolar's anticipated production in 2008 has already been ordered.

(2007-12-19 12:39:41 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

ECB lends banks $502 billion, easing cash drought

bloomberg.com :

The European Central Bank loaned 348.6 billion euros ($501.5 billion) for two weeks to banks to bring down the cost of money at year-end. The ECB said 390 banks bid for the two-week loans at a marginal rate of 4.21%. Bids ranged from 4% to 4.45%. The reluctance to lend money after the collapse of the U.S. subprime market pushed interbank euro rates for two weeks to the highest level at least six years earlier this week. The rate banks charge each other for two-week euros fell to 4.45% from 4.94%, the European Banking Federation said today [18 Dec 2007].

Borrowing costs jumped in August as banks, including Bear Stearns Cos. and Merrill Lynch & Co., began to reveal losses on securities linked to U.S. mortgages aimed at people with poor credit histories. Losses from U.S. subprime mortgage foreclosures will probably reach $300 billion, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD] predicted on Nov. 22. The slump in global credit markets may force banks, brokerages and hedge funds to cut lending by $2 trillion and trigger a "substantial recession" in the U.S., Goldman Sachs forecast on Nov. 16. The ECB first offered extra cash on Aug. 9, when it lent an unprecedented 95 billion euros in emergency funding to banks.

(2007-12-19 12:29:57 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

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