Super-rich turn to hard commodities as inflation bites

Wildmann said that platinum and palladium are also strong bets because of rising production costs in South Africa. He also took a bullish view on ferro-chrome, produced in South Africa and Kazahstan and used in stainless steel.

But he was more bearish on gold, saying the price had far outstripped production costs despite little actual utility for the precious metal.

“There is absolutely no use for gold today. When you think about the world without gold, nothing would happen, but a world without copper or alloy or zinc is not running anymore. That is a huge difference,” Wildmann said.

“The volatility was always higher in commodities than for example in the stock market. But 10 or 20 years ago, usually you had only physical traders in the commodities markets. Now that market has really changed a lot,” he said.