JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Platinum group metals (PGMs) are fundamentally key to the delivery of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan to 2030, Shanghai Platinum Week 2026 has served to highlight.
Founded and organised by the World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC), Shanghai Platinum Week this year attracted a record 713 in-person attendees, up 30% on 2025.
During the agenda-packed week, it was reported that China had earmarked close to $300-billion for AI infrastructure expansion and PGM-based hydrogen production was being increased in China at a faster pace than anywhere else on the planet.
"The prospect of significant growth from AI-related platinum demand is an overlay that the market is only just beginning to appreciate and China’s hydrogen scale-up is supported by ambitious deployment targets for PGM-based hydrogen production and PGM-based fuel cell electric vehicle assembly. On current fundamentals, the value proposition for platinum remains compelling,” WPIC CEO Trevor Raymond stated in a media release to Mining Weekly.
AI-related applications that are poised to benefit from PGMs include silicone production, hard disk drives, thin-film coatings on semiconductors and sensors, electronic grade glass fabrics for printed circuit boards, crucibles needed to grow industrial crystals for optical interconnects, and hydrogen fuel cells for data centre back-up power.
