#Silver

In the silver market, and especially on the COMEX exchange managed by CME Group, there is a serious physical supply shortage (bottleneck). Demand for silver in industrial areas such as solar panels, electric vehicles (EV), AI data centers, and 5G infrastructure has reached enormous levels. Silver mined from the ground and the amount from recycling are not enough to meet this demand. Since consumption is far above annual production, the market is rapidly draining existing inventories. The amount of “paper” contracts traded on the exchange (open interest) is far above the physical silver in the vault. This creates the tension that a liquidity crisis could occur if investors and industrial users suddenly demand physical delivery. Because physical silver is decreasing and panic buying in the market, very sharp fluctuations occurred in silver prices. CME Group even had to radically increase margin requirements on silver contracts recently in order to cool the market and prevent a possible system lockup.
There is a very simple rule in economics; if demand exceeds supply, the price rises
Mexico, by itself supplying about 24% of global silver production, is the world’s largest silver producer. Cartels, using their dominance in mining regions, are raising tension in commodity markets by preventing silver from being extracted from the ground and reaching global markets.