Many people love to look to silver and gold when then think of metals. And there’s nothing wrong with that. They should be some of the first metals you check out.

However, sometimes gold and silver can “steal the show” and yet there can be more value created in other metals that aren’t getting as much attention.

That’s what is happening right now in platinum and palladium.

Think about it for a minute. Gold is trading around $1,727 an ounce as of this writing and platinum is trading around $1,583 an ounce. Yet platinum is even more rare than gold.

But this goes even deeper than that. Platinum and palladium will become even more rare this year and it will likely continue throughout 2013 due to labor disputes and strikes in South Africa.

Right now, those disputes are causing platinum output to be the least since 2000 because it’s leaving the market short by 400,000 ounces.

Palladium will lag demand too by an even bigger margin, 915,000 ounces, which is also the most since 2000. (Last year, there was a glut of 1.26 million ounces that drove the price of palladium down.)

So where do the supplies stand?

Platinum supplies will drop 9.9 percent to 5.84 million ounces due to a 12 percent drop in production from South Africa, which accounts for 73 percent of global output.

Supplies of palladium are expected to drop 11 percent to 6.57 million ounces, as output slips in South Africa by 6.3 percent and by 3.9 percent in Russia, which is the biggest producer of the metal.

Yet auto demand alone is strong for both of these metals. You see, they are used in catalytic converters in cars.

Typically, palladium is used more for gasoline engines, while platinum is used more for diesel engines.

Demand for palladium will increase 7.5 percent just for automobiles alone, as the demand for gasoline engine-operated cars picks up.

This has these metals poised for their next runs higher upon supply constraints.

For instance, platinum had run up from $1,380 to over $1,725 within just a couple of months. That was “too far, too quickly.” So it was due for a pullback.

Well now that platinum has retraced about 50 percent of its gains, it’s due for its next push higher.

I believe on the next push higher, we’ll see platinum top its recent October highs. So this metal is looking good.

Palladium looks even better, as it’s got more of a deficit of a supply and it’s also retraced about three quarters of its two month rally from just over $550 an ounce to above $700 an ounce.

Palladium looks to be turning higher now, and I believe it will overtake its September highs.

I believe that both of these metals have been overlooked by the investment community and that we’ll see them actually outpace gold throughout the remainder of the year and all throughout 2013.

So look where no one else is looking and profit from metals that will increase greater than gold will even increase.

About the Author: Sean Hyman
Sean Hyman is a member of the Moneynews Financial Brain Trust. Click Here to read more of his articles. He is also the editor of Ultimate Wealth Report. Discover more by Clicking Here Now.