Spot palladium has soared to a two-month high following the news that General Motors (GM) is planning to switch to making autocatalysts from palladium rather than platinum.

Investors have been rapidly buying into the commodity amid reports of increasing demand, with the precious metal rising as high as $208 per troy ounce on Tuesday (May 27th).

The resurgence of the precious metal follows a period in which the price of palladium plunged - a drop that David Andres, GM's purchasing director for commodity traded metals worldwide, cited as the reason for GM's switch.

'A $500 gap between the platinum and palladium price [...] makes a lot of sense to switch and we have been doing for some applications,' he told Reuters last week.

Mr Andres also revealed the firm had already used palladium in three autocatalyst models that had previously used platinum.