Hi Ho "SILVER"

[JBmurc]

Report: The Future of Silver Industrial Demand
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Thu, Mar 31, 2011 Feature Articles
By Michael Montgomery—Exclusive to Silver Investing News


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A new report commissioned by The Silver Institute, from research firm GFMS, titled “The Future of Silver Industrial Demand” forecasts the industrial demand for silver through 2015. The report focuses on silvers unique properties that in many cases are irreplaceable by cheaper alternatives. Silver’s use in a wide array of applications such as electronics and photovoltaic solar cells, and as an antibacterial agent assure the metal new and expanding markets above and beyond the more traditional jewelry, photographic and silverware markets. Silver demand by the photovoltaic industry alone grew from 3Moz in 2004 to around 50Moz in 2010. The report has a bullish outlook for industrial demand, growing from 487.4 Moz in 2010 up to 665.9 Moz by 2015 marking a 36 percent increase over the five year period.

The report looks into the expansion of established uses such as electrical connections, as well as new emerging demand from innovations such as nano-tech as the driver of future industrial demand. An example of expanding established markets is the use of silver in automotive electrical connectors. The growth in this market is not just from increasing automobile demand but also from the expansion of features such as navigation systems, and electric seats, which though previously found only in luxury vehicles are quickly becoming a standard on all vehicles in this technological age. The story is much the same for cell phones and other high tech electronics markets.

Photovoltaic solar panels (PV) have been growing in popularity over the last decade as costs of electrical production are coming close to grip parity, or the cost of producing an equivalent amount of energy from fossil fuels. Silver is used in ‘thick film’ solar panels in which crystalline silicon is used to covert solar heat to energy. The use of silver in these solar panels has grown from 3 Moz in 2004 to 50 Moz in 2010. The report forecasts the demand for silver in these types of solar panels to grow to double by 2015. However, the report also covers the growing use of ‘thin film’ or CIGS solar panels that do not use silver in the production. This new solar panel design could reduce the total amount of silver used in PV technology.

Silver’s use in a host of other electrical devices is also a factor in total demand growth. These applications range from superconductors, super-capacitors, solid state lighting, batteries and other applications. Silver’s role in burgeoning Nano technology will make electrical components smaller and more efficient, which should increase the level of consumption of the products.

The report also cites the growing use of silver as an anti-microbial agent in the medical community, water purification and wood preservation industries as having massive growth potential. Some of these applications come from the ethylene oxide industry which uses silver in the production of a wide array of applications from solvents and plastics, to disinfectants in the medical community. Currently there is over 100 plants globally, the report forecasts silver capacity at these plants to exceed 150 Moz.

The effect of the projected 36 percent growth of industrial fabrication on the supply and demand fundamentals at play in the silver market may be quite substantial. Many analysts have noted that the supply of silver will become increasingly tight as mines worldwide are not able to make up for growing demand. This will obviously raise the price of silver, which has already seen impressive gains since the economic downturn. Precious metals are increasingly sought after as a hedge against inflationary trends, and as the price of gold is becoming out of reach for the average investor, the increases in investment demand for the poor man’s gold is booming.

Unless a robust economic turnaround is realized in the short term, which would entice investors to seek out equities in greater volume, the counter inflationary investment trend does not seem to be letting up anytime soon. Coupled with increases in industrial demand, the price of silver has nowhere to go but up. Of course the higher price of silver may increase the search for alternatives to the white metal; however, because of silver’s unique properties very few substitutes exist. This means that direct investment in silver as well as investments in ETF’s should perform well going forward

[shasta]

Silver closed at $37.69/oz, Ag to Au ratio now 37.742

AYN closed at 8.2c up 0.6c Friday & should add some more Monday

[JBmurc]

silver is a scarce material. Our uses of silver are growing as our population and our economy grows. The hard fact is that silver consumption is now more than double new silver production each year. So, in the face of this worldwide shortage of silver, and our rapidly growing need for coins, the only really prudent course was to reduce our dependence upon silver for making our coins.--President Lyndon Johnson made on July 23, 1965

http://goldsilver.com/article/silver...eodore-butler/

[shasta]

Silver marches on up 29c overnight to $US39.57/oz, getting close to the $40/oz mark, crazy stuff, i never thought we'd see $40/oz this early in the year

[Skol]

From today's FT:


Indeed, it is possibly a misjudgment to assume that bullion’s rise reflects inflation concerns. Other factors cited by analysts and commentators over recent days for the strength in precious metals have included: worries over the eurozone; geopolitical problems; Japan’s nuclear woes; and even the possible US government shutdown.

But none of these issues seems to be having lasting impact on other risk assets, so it would be strange if their influence was being applied to bullion alone. In which case, perhaps gold and silver’s rise is part and parcel of the overall bull market, powered by cheap funds. Nothing more.

[Skol]

silver is a scarce material. Our uses of silver are growing as our population and our economy grows. The hard fact is that silver consumption is now more than double new silver production each year. So, in the face of this worldwide shortage of silver, and our rapidly growing need for coins, the only really prudent course was to reduce our dependence upon silver for making our coins.--President Lyndon Johnson made on July 23, 1965

http://goldsilver.com/article/silver...eodore-butler/

Silver's scarce. LOL, there's heaps of it and as the price increases they'll dig up more.

It's like the goldbug's wet dream, "we're running out of gold". Last year 2500 tonnes of gold were dug up.

Hey JB, chunks of silver aren't very liquid. What's the plan when the day of reckoning arrives?

[Skol]

Here it comes JB.
From today's FT.

Silver Price Indicates Level of Speculative Froth.


By Jamie Chisholm

Published: April 6 2011 16:12 | Last updated: April 6 2011 16:12

Four assets, two tight relationships, one confusing mess of market messages.


Let’s start with oil. Brent crude touched $123 a barrel on Wednesday. When it spiked to $119 in February it caused severe conniptions. This time stocks are near cyclical highs as bulls say oil’s rise is demand powered, handily less damaging than a supply crunch.

The spread between Brent and Nymex crude was seen as a proxy for supply concerns (because the former is considered more sensitive to Mideast production). And that spread has widened again to $14 as both contracts move to 30-month highs. Now, though, this trend is being dismissed.

Gold and its silver pilot fish are at record and 31-year highs, respectively. Apart from people buying jewellery when they feel flush, the two other main demand drivers for gold are negative factors: rampant inflation and political strife. Not good for stocks.

Now it is true early stages of inflation can come as a relief when the previous concern was deflation. But, longer term, gold bugs and equity bulls can not both have their cake and eat it. Silver at its most expensive, relative to gold, since 1983 speaks to the scale of speculative froth.
.

[JBmurc]

Silver's scarce. LOL, there's heaps of it and as the price increases they'll dig up more..

yeah we can just keep digging can't we Skol never ending silver supply the last five thousand years of silver mining doesn't mean we don't have another five thousand years left(I wouldn't be surprised if you thought this as you don't have a clue)

Fact-Silver $40.93oz is still cheap we haven't seen nothing yet

[JBmurc]

Why Silver Will Go UP for Years to Come!
(Floods of paper money!)
Silver Stock Report
by Jason Hommel, April 7th, 2011

1. No nation on earth is using silver as a circulating medium of exchange. The State of Utah is leading the way by making it legal tender.

2. All nations on earth are using paper for money, which is about as wise as building houses out of straw. The amount of paper money is uncountable, and is constantly soaring to new highs. The USA stopped reporting the amounts of money in the banks back in 2006, and the banks in 2008 started depositing a lot of their bailout money with the Fed banks, making it even harder to track. All of that marks the beginning of hyperinflation, which appears to be starting now.

3. The Federal annual deficit, which is how much they spent more than they took in, is $1.66 trillion, or $830 billion for the first half of fiscal 2011. Does that count QEII? What was not counted in that? How reliable are the figures? If the figures are wrong, are the real figures likely to be bigger or smaller, and by how much?

http://tinyurl.com/3ozdljx (April 7th news item)

4. The silver market remains tiny. "World investment rose by an impressive 40 percent last year to 279.3 million troy ounces (Moz), resulting in a net flow into silver of $5.6 billion, almost doubling 2009’s figure." How reliable are the figures?

http://www.silverinstitute.org/pr07apr2011.php (April 7th news item)

Recap: New US Debt: $830 billion in 6 months.
Recap: New Silver buying: $5.6 billion, all year.

Essay assignment, compare and contrast those two numbers.

Which one is bigger? Which one is smaller?

What is likely to change?
What is likely to stay the same?

If the US government spends new paper money that it does not have, is that inflationary? Will that make the new dollars tend to go down in value? If so, by how much?

Are silver prices likely to go up, as new money buys silver to protect itself? In your opinion, much new money will be likely to buy silver next year? How much do you think the silver price will continue to be driven up, in the next year, by such buying?

Is the US government likely to suddenly balance the budget by next year, or will the spending like a drunken sailor be likely to continue?

If you convince your friends to buy silver, are they more likely to thank you, or not, as certain trends and fundamentals continue?

[denpal]

Silver now $US41.40/oz