Mr. Rosen is China practice leader at Rhodium Group and visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

WSJ: Thilo Hanemann and Dan Rosen: Chinese Investment 2.0

Alternative sources accounting for flows through third countries, such as Rhodium Group's China Investment Monitor, point to an even sharper increase of up to 1, 300%.

WSJ: Thilo Hanemann and Dan Rosen: Chinese Investment 2.0

Mr. Hanemann is research director at Rhodium Group.

WSJ: Thilo Hanemann and Dan Rosen: Chinese Investment 2.0

Partly due to the possibility of exemptions, "we expect Japanese and Korean refineries to reduce their purchases of Iranian crude by between 10% and 40% over the course of 2012, " Trevor Houser, a partner at New York-based economic research firm Rhodium Group, said in a note Wednesday.

WSJ: Oil Market's Iran Fears Might Be Overdone

The annual yearbook on platinum group metals put out by the consultancy CPM Group pegged global rhodium demand in 2011 at 894, 496 ounces, of which 739, 177 was for autos.

FORBES: Honda's Reduced Use Of Rhodium Part Of Effort To Shift Away From More-Expensive Metals

Rhodium, platinum and palladium are part of the platinum group metals (PGMs), primarily used to manufacture automobile emission control devices.

FORBES: Rhodium Inches Higher on News of Emerging Investment Products