Silver Institute 1H 2015 report

Silver Institute 1H 2015 report

The Silver Institute has released interim supply/demand figures for the first half of 2015.  We provide a summary as follows:

• Jewellery demand up 11% in US (largest user).  Demand to grow 5% over all of 2015.  
• Industrial use nearly 60% of total demand.  2% growth predicted over all of 2015.
• Solar panels – 8% increase to 65m oz
• Ethylene oxide – 61% increase to 8.6m oz
• Electronics – 0.4% increase [qty not quoted but 264m oz 2014]
• Investment demand:
• ETF – 4.7m increase
• Bullion coin – 6% down at 43.6m oz – but still 5^th highest ever
• [ Note Bullion bars not quoted – 196m oz total in 2014]
• Supply / demand – silver market expected to be 57.7m oz in DEFICIT this year
• Supply contracting
• Demand growing
• 3^rd year in a row of a deficit
• Average gold : silver ratio for first half 73 compared to 58 average since 2000 [and as we often reference – c45 over the last century]\
• Puts silver undervalued compared to gold adding weight to continued investment demand.

One could be excused for wondering how on earth the price could be this low then?  If you are you might have missed reading this article from earlier this week.