WATCH OUT FOR THE CAT(ALYTIC) BURGLER
Todd Shepard, Founder Shepard & Shepard Insurance Solutions
T
hey say it takes an experienced thief only
two minutes to cut or unbolt your catalytic converter and nowadays its even happening in broad daylight! The theft of catalytic converters has been on the rise with some areas receiving multiple theft reports daily.
Scrap recyclers will pay big money for a stolen converter because they will get even bigger money when they extract and sell the precious metals. Feeding this market is the continued increase in value of those metals, especially the silvery-white chemical element called rhodium which has skyrocketed in value over the past few years. To understand why the price of rhodium has jumped like crazy we need to look to the platinum mines of South Africa where over 80% of the world’s rhodium is produced. Rhodium is a by-product of the production of platinum and palladium. When the miners in South Africa are cranking out platinum there is plenty of rhodium to go around. The problem occurred around 2008 when the
What is a catalytic converter? Since 1976 the United States has mandated cars and trucks be equipped with a round canister connecting two pieces of piping in the exhaust called a catalytic converter. The converter contains platinum, rhodium and palladium which have a unique ability to remove the most toxic pollutants from vehicle exhaust. Since the goal of the catalytic converter is to change harmful gasses from the vehicle exhaust into something less damaging to the environment these metals are precious in more ways than one! Why would thieves catalytic converters?
target
12 | the Front Row | wsiada.com | May/June 2021
recession hit causing a reduction in the demand for platinum yet the mining continued full throttle. After a while they realized so much platinum had been stockpiled, they had to slow production, drastically reducing availability to the leftover rhodium we need to shove up our exhaust. That brings us to today’s problem. Until there is a higher demand (and more profitability) in the production of platinum it’s not likely we will see any substantial increase in mining activity resulting in a decrease in availability, and increase in the value of, our friend, rhodium. Is the theft of my catalytic converter covered under my insurance?
