Silver keeps on hanging in there at $37 an ounce. The corrections we've seen over the past 3 months have not yet exceeded 10%, and as soon as it goes below $34 an ounce the buying begins and the price becomes resilient once again.
Most saavy precious metal investors are aware that the price of silver has been greatly manipulated over the past 30 years. Perhaps federal commodity regulators will crack down a bit in the weeks and months ahead. Even if they do, the fundamentals should remain strong and be getting even stronger.
Dorothy Kosich at Mineweb.com posted a story today about the GFMS report for the Silver Institute, and it sure looks like industrial demand will continue to surge in the years to come. It doesn't even speak to the fact that silver has become a proxy "currency" and an important investment for those trying to protect their buying power.
Here's Dorothy's report thanks to Mineweb:
A GFMS report for the Silver Institute predicts a bullish picture for the future of industrial silver demand with a record high of 665.9 million ounces in 2015.
The GFMS study, The Future of Silver Industrial Demand, made public Monday, also forecast the annual average silver price to continue to rise this year, "driven in large part by further inflows of investment demand, and supported by additional growth in fabrication demand."
"Looking ahead, a bullish picture for the future of silver industrial demand emerges. From an estimated volume of 487.4 Moz in 2010, the global total is expected to post an uninterrupted period of growth through to a record high of 665.9 Moz in 2015," said the report.
Much of the growth in the global total of industrial silver consumption will be driven by stronger demand for a number of established uses including the manufacture of electrical contacts, and the use of silver in the photo voltaic (PV) industry.
"In addition to these segments, there are also a number of new uses of silver that merit attention," noted GFMS. These new uses center on silver's antibacterial qualities, while other new uses tend to make use of its conductive properties, including solid state lighting and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags.
"Looking ahead, the number of such products, both antibacterial and conductive, is set to rise further, which will ultimately translate to an increase in silver offtake," GFMS predicted. "That said, we would caution that it may be beyond the forecast timeframe before we see more noteworthy volumes of silver consumption emerging."
Between 2010 and 2015, GFMS expects to see close to 180 Moz added to the global total of world silver industrial fabrication.
In the report, GFMS noted that cell phones used 13 million ounces of silver last year, while computers consumed 22 million ounces.