OHIO – A Ohio lawmaker is aiming to help address the rising issues of Catalytic Converter Theft in Ohio.
State Rep. Bob Young (R-Green) introduced House Bill 408 which would criminalize the selling of those car parts.
According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, this kind of theft is skyrocketing across the nation.
“We have seen a significant increase during the pandemic. It’s an opportunistic crime. As the value of the precious metals contained within the catalytic converters continues to increase, so do the number of thefts of these devices. There is a clear connection between times of crisis, limited resources, and disruption of the supply chain that drives investors towards these precious metals.”
A catalytic converter is a device that looks like a small muffler along with the exhaust system. It is designed to convert the environmentally hazardous exhaust emitted by an engine into less harmful gasses. To do this, manufacturers use platinum, palladium, and rhodium as the three valuable metals used in catalytic converters. These metals also come with high price tags per ounce. Rates available on KITCO.com, an online retailer of precious metals, showed that prices for rhodium had a 2021 high between March 19 and March 22 with a rate of $18,000 per ounce, according to NICB.
In the first week of November, KITCO.com showed rhodium prices at $13,250 per ounce, according to NICB, while palladium was $1,934 per ounce and platinum was $1,028 per ounce. Palladium reached its 2021 peak price on May 6 at $2,890 per ounce, according to NICB, while platinum’s 2021 peak came on Feb. 19, totaling $1,266 per ounce, prices on KITCO.com showed.
The new bill would categorize a catalytic converter as a “special purchase article” meaning any scrap metal dealer, bulk merchandise dealer, or any other entity buying the converter would need to get proof that they own it.
