Russia's Norilsk considers a joint venture to produce autocatalysts

Russia's Norilsk Nickel is considering a joint venture to produce autocatalysts with a Russian carmaker and a Western company, Norilsk's chairman told a precious metals conference on Wednesday. Norilsk is one of the world's major producers of the platinum group metals -- platinum, palladium and rhodium -- which are used in autocatalysts to clean car exhaust fumes. ``GAZ plant has announced it plans to start building luxury cars,'' Yuri Kotlyar said. ``But why should cars come from GAZ without catalysts and why don't we participate in this business?''. A a third partner producing catalysts for this type of car would eventually appear, he added. ``It may be Ford, which built GAZ in 1930s, it may be General Motors. It may be Engelhard Corp or it may be Johnson Matthey. I don't know who the third partner will be, but there will be one,'' he said. He declined to say when the project would be launched, Reuters reports.