China will be a major player in the silver market in the years to come, according to a new report by the Silver Institute. The Chinese impact on silver comes from both the demand and supply sides of the equation.
China is by far the biggest silver consumer in the world. The Chinese account for about 18% of global fabrication demand and serves as a major destination for imported silver products fabricated in the US, Japan and other countries.
Meanwhile, China ranks as the third-largest silver-producing country in the world.
The silver-gold ratio has hit levels not seen in more than 25 years.
The ratio pushed above 85 this week. To find a higher silver-gold ratio, you have to go all the way back to 1991. As Peter Schiff has said, “This is silver on sale.”
The SchiffGold Friday Gold Wrap podcast combines a succinct summary of the week’s precious metals news coupled with thoughtful analysis. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.
The prices of gold and silver are behaving very much like they did in 2008. You remember what was happening in 2008, right?
After the dot.com bubble burst, the Federal Reserve swooped in and dropped interest rates to an artificially low level. In the mid-2000s, the economy boomed and the housing bubble inflated driven by the sudden influx of cheap credit. In 2007, it all began to unravel and the air started leaking out of the subprime mortgage bubble. Of course, everybody said, “Hey, nothing to worry about. Everything is great!”
And they were spectacularly wrong.
Gold sales at Australia’s Perth Mint rose to their highest level in nearly a year in August as investors took advantage of gold on sale.
According to the mint, sales of gold coins and minted bars surged 30% to 38,904 ounces last month. It was the strongest month of gold sales since November 2017. Sales were nearly doubled from a year ago, according to the mint.
“Lower bullion prices continued to support interest in our minted products among investors,” a company spokesman said.
Green technologies will consume over 1.5 billion ounces of silver over the next twelve years.
The Silver Institute highlighted the growing demand for silver in the green energy sector, along with some new technological innovations utilizing the white metal in its latest edition of Silver News.
With hyperinflation gripping Iran and sanctions strangling the economy, Iranians are beginning to turn to gold to make everyday transactions, most notably to pay their rent.
The Iranian rial has depreciated rapidly since the US announced its withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal and the reimposition of economic sanctions. After the US formally announced it was pulling out of the deal in May, the exchange rate peaked at around 45,000 rials to the dollar. But that official rate was only available to well-connected bankers, importers and businesses. Average Iranians were paying twice that. By July 29, money-exchangers in Tehran were charging around 100,000 rials for one dollar. Within 24 hours, it increased to 110,000 rials to the dollar.
The SchiffGold Friday Gold Wrap podcast combines a succinct summary of the week’s precious metals news coupled with thoughtful analysis. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.
The SchiffGold Friday Gold Wrap podcast combines a succinct summary of the week’s precious metals news coupled with thoughtful analysis. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.
There is plenty of bad news out there. We have a trade war. Geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran and the US and Russia are high. Turkey is in the midst of a currency crisis that some fear will spread beyond that country’s borders. So, why aren’t people seeking safe haven and buying gold and silver?
The CEO at Australia’s Perth Mint has a theory. Richard Hayes said bad news has become so prevalent nobody really pays attention to it anymore. In a nutshell, bad news has become the norm. As a Bloomberg report put it, “Investors have grown immune to the economic and geopolitical risks that typically drive haven demand for gold.”
