By Javier Blas in London, Commodities Correspondent
June 17 2008
SourceThe airline industry's fight for survival in the face of soaring oil prices has triggered a massive jump in the price of a number of obscure and scarce metals that are used to improve the fuel economy of jet engines.
Traders said demand for minor metals such as rhenium, chromium, cobalt and titanium is booming as Rolls-Royce, General Electric and Pratt & Whitney buy them for new super-alloys that help cut aircraft fuel consumption.
The jump in the price of rhenium - an extremely rare metal that was the last naturally occurring chemical element to be discovered - is the most striking example of the new environment.
The rhenium price on Tuesday surged to a record of $11,250 a kilogram, more than double last year's level and up from about $1,000 in early 2006, traders said. "At current prices it is more a semi-precious metal than an industry metal," one trader commented. At current rates, rhenium is only a little less than half the price of gold - a boon to Chile and Kazakhstan, the largest miners of the metal.
Rhenium and other rare metals are in demand because, when combined with other industrial metals, they create strong super-alloys resistant to heat, allowing aircraft engines to run at much higher temperatures and therefore saving fuel.
With oil prices rising to almost $140 a barrel, airlines have been demanding engines that consume less fuel. Minor metals traders said the trend will strengthen as airlines fight for survival.
Allan Kerr, chief executive at Wogen, the London-based minor metals traders, said airlines were replacing older aircraft with new jets with more efficient engines. "The drive to fuel economy translates into strong demand for minor metals used in engines' super-alloys," he said.
Although metals such as rhenium have been used in military aircraft for decades - with Washington and Moscow keeping strategic stocks during the cold war years - their spread into commercial aircraft is more recent, Mr Kerr said.
Chromium, produced mainly in South Africa, has also benefited from the desire for fuel-efficient engines. Its price has jumped this month to a record of $11,000 per tonne, up from about $6,800 last year and less than $4,000 in 2000.
The price of cobalt, which comes predominantly from the Democratic Republic of Congo, rose earlier this year to $52.50 per pound, double its 2006 level and the highest price since at least 1978.