@pmbug
I was just checking out the most recent silver survey. Look at photovoltaic (solar panel) demand climb from
59 Moz's in 2015 to
193 Moz's in 2023. Silver's use in electronics has also climbed from
272 Moz's to
445 in the same time period ('15-'23). So in 8 years, demand for silver in solar panels has increased
3.5x and demand for electronics has risen by
170 Moz's. At the same time,
mine supply has declined.
Between 2022-2023 there was a
440+ Moz deficit. Because we live in backwards world, the price of Silver actually fell during this period. For that to even be a reality, there must be undeclared stockpiles that were used to supply the markets that aren't/couldn't be accounted for in the surveys.
The forecast for 2024 for physical investment is
210 Moz's. These forecasts are rarely accurate, and they were done long before we broke through the
$30 threshold. My forecast is
300+ Moz's.
This is what I'm referring to when I say the market cannot handle an increase in demand. With positive market sentiment in the stacking community, the most likely place a 200 Moz's increase in overall market demand would come from is physical investment.
Because we have no way to analyse just how much silver is available in aboveground stockpiles to tame the markets, we can only speculate. But the last two years are not an anomaly on the silver deficit front. We have a whole history of deficits where
'Government Sales' were listed and they would always come in and provide the markets with supply... Much like they didn't want the POS to ever go up?! I've spoken about this so many times before but this here is the real manipulation. The Comex manipulation is just a smoke and mirrors distraction, and a complimentary tool to the true physical market manipulation that takes place.
For speculation sake; let's say the stockpiles have already run dry. This would mean that all the major tech companies, all the manufacturers of electronics and solar panels, the medical industry, jewellery industry, photography industry, Bullion industry, and every Military in the world would be competing for supply. When such a time comes (and it could be sooner than we think), the scramble for silver will be insane.
