Josip Heit is a global entrepreneur who has been able to gain a foothold in a wide variety of industries during their early days. He was originally born in Croatia but came to Germany at a young age to continue his academic career. Today, Heit is mainly active in the financial industry, the e-metals business, and the field of digital technologies.
Not only has he helped the company Karatbars in the past to set up its own blockchain solutions but he also played an important role in helping release the first blockchain smartphone with VoBP (Voice Over Blockchain Protocol) in 2019. In the same year, Karatbars succeeded in producing the first blockchain computer that can not be hacked, thus, providing its owner with 100 percent protection, just like with its smartphone.
Josip Heit now serves as Chairman of the Board of GSB Gold Standard Banking Corporation AG. In addition to all his successful business ventures, Heit continuously takes time to support humanitarian, cultural, scientific, environmental, educational, and sports-related projects.
In one of his many conferences, Heit claimed that there is a great possibility of gold hitting $1,600 in 2020. He claimed that gold will likely trade at the range of $1,400 by the end of the year because it has run out of steam due to higher U.S. equity, monetary policy direction, and the positive U.S.-China trade headlines.
“The price of gold will average more sustainably in the $1,500s/oz range next year and cross the $1,600/oz level multiple times signaling a solid year-on-year strength in 2020,” Heit noted. “Recent monetary policy guidance, strength in U.S. equities, and potential trade deal headlines have obumbrated the market, capping the upside,” he added.
He also claimed that the increase in risk sentiment in the market has been boosting the prices and the allocation of gold, with him expecting the trend to continue during the year 2020.
“This trend is expected to continue and to balance out with price consolidation due to ongoing interest, and the allocation of gold will remain favorable in the coming year because ETP holdings have passed their 2012 highs in tonnage terms.” According to Heit, gold is expected to outperform other precious metals in the space due to higher demand.
Shifting the focus to silver, Josip Heit expects its price to rally by 4.9 percent in the coming year, which will see its price push closer to $19 per ounce, with the growth rate for this year being predicted to be 3.1 percent. He also expects precious metals to continue to outperform base metals as global growth concerns continue to weigh on copper prices.
“It is expected that the price of copper will rally 2.3 percent next year after dropping 8 percent this year. The entire base metals complex is projected to fall 1.4 percent in 2020, after seeing a decline of 5.2 percent this year,” he further added.
According to Josip Heit, “a bullish breakout for platinum should be expected between 2020 and 2022, with an upside potential of 80 percent ($1800/oz) and a base case bullish potential of 30 percent ($1350/oz).” Although he said that the forecasted price targets will likely be met in 2021 or 2022, the prerequisite is that platinum has to cross $1100 per oz. “My 2020 forecast for platinum is mildly bullish while 2021 going to 2022 is wildly bullish,” said Heit.
Palladium, on the other hand, tells a different story. Heit says that the low supply and rising demand is bound to keep the price rallying next year. “From a fundamental point of view, palladium has the most constructive outlook, although gold still remains a standout across all precious metals,” he claimed. “Palladium has been in a deficit for the past seven years and I am forecasting a deficit in 2020 and 2021. The market is structurally undersupplied,” Heit added.
“Although the price of rhodium remains extremely volatile because of its opaque marketplace, I think it will continue to see higher prices as the market continues to be dominated by growing auto sector demand and shrinking supply,” Josip Heit said when talking about rhodium. “From a technical perspective, once rhodium breaks above $3,700, there are no chart lines until $10,000,” he commented.
The automotive sector dominates the demand for rhodium. The metal is a critical ingredient in autocatalytic converters, which are used to reduce harmful exhaust emissions. Among the platinum group metals, palladium is predominately used in gasoline engines and platinum is used in diesel vehicles, but rhodium is needed for both diesel and gas engines.
“They are putting rhodium in everything,” Heit said. “Because of higher environmental standards, they are throwing more and more rhodium in converters. I don’t see the big automakers stopping this trend anytime soon and the supplies they need are just not there.”
Josip Heit further added that the one factor that could slow down rhodium’s rally is a potential weakness in the global economy.
“Thank god for a global slowdown. It’s sad but true,” he said. “This rally is like Thelma and Louie. The rally is going higher but we are headed for a cliff.”
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