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The digital boom in India,  to benefit online jewelry sales!   Looking ahead to 2021, we expect to see a healthy double-digit gain although that is set against 2020’s low level. The forecast upside for silver jewelry demand next year will likely be constrained by our expectation of yet higher silver prices. Furthermore, the anticipated economic recovery may be pushed further out as the pandemic could take longer to be meaningfully controlled in India. This in turn could, to some extent, weigh on consumer sentiment next year. The Longer Term Outlook: As mentioned earlier, silver jewelry sales are dominated by price-sensitive rural India and record high rupee prices are likely to weigh on demand in 2021. To offset the impact of this, jewelry fabricators and especially those in the largest segment that focuses on traditional jewelry (such as leg chains and toe rings) will likely choose to reduce purity or promote lighter pieces, thereby reducing silver demand in weight terms.   To an e

Overviewed US Silver market 2020 Silver Jewelry Report overviewed US Silver market 2020. Any review of the US silver jewelry market in 2020 is inevitably dominated by the depth of the trough as the Covid pandemic took hold and then the speed of the recovery as lockdowns were eased and the economy came back to life.   In this regard, we can point to the data from the US Department of Commerce on sales (by value) of all jewelry and watches. This shows a dramatic slump to losses of -51% y/y in April and a strong recovery to +2% in June (making for an indicative -25% for Q2 as a whole).  Our contacts inform us, however, that recent sales include an element of pent-up demand, as more consumers are at last able to leave their homes, and so called “revenge shopping” (the latter being shopping as remedy to the general gloom of recent months). As a result, it is far from guaranteed that the modest gain seen in June continues.   This would be doubly certain if infection rates fail to fall ma

Silver jewelry hitting the sweet spot!   The strength of silver jewelry demand compared to jewelry demand for other metals varies hugely between countries. This is mainly due to cultural attitudes, such as consumers viewing silver as fashionable or a close, rather than a distant, relative of gold. (This helps explain why silver jewelry in the US is much stronger versus gold than it is in many other countries.)   Similarly, some markets might accept pieces made in base metals if the design and branding are good enough (a common view in Europe), while others would dismiss say a necklace in bronze as worthless, said in a Silver Jewelry Report, Prepared for The Silver Institute under the head, Silver Jewelry’s Popularity!   As shown below, Indian silver jewelry demand versus gold today is much stronger than silver is in China. This is due to both pro-silver facets in India (such as urban areas’ preference for silver for daily wear items) and pro-gold features in China (such as the eff

Forecasted Increases in Key Markets   Silver’s use in jewelry is an important demand source for the precious metal. In 2019, 200.2 million ounces (Moz) of silver were consumed in this sector, which was just shy of the record high of 201.9 Moz posted in 2018.   Although silver jewelry consumption currently accounts for 20 percent of total silver demand, it is projected to rise to a quarter of global silver demand by the mid-2020s, further underscoring the popularity and desirability of silver jewelry among leading designers and fashion-conscious consumers.   Against this backdrop, a new publication released today by the Silver Institute, Silver Jewelry Report, assesses the current state and prospects of the top silver jewelry fabricating markets, including the U.S., India, Europe and East Asia. The report was produced by Metals Focus, the global precious metals consultancy. The report states that the global silver jewelry market has been negatively affected in 2020 by the COVID-19

India the number one jewellery producer in the globe!   Recently, Silver Jewelry Report, Prepared for The Silver Institute-published in December. The report is widely focussed upon jewellery trend & Outlook 2021. The Scale of the Silver Jewelry Market says, last year global silver jewelry fabrication reached an impressive 200.2Moz (6,228t), up a full 26% on the low for the decade in 2012.   There was a quick recovery in many countries after that trough when the silver price fell, but the robust growth after that was largely driven by India. That country’s growth was in turn mainly due to rising disposable incomes plus supportive structural factors.   As explained, this year has proved tough, with demand expected to fall by 23% due to COVID damage. On a more positive note, we are forecasting a healthy recovery next year of 13%. Looking at key Silver Jewelry Markets, the report says, India is by some margin the largest producer, accounting for 35% of total fabrication in 2019 (an

Silver momentum remained upward   What happened in the silver market in Q3? Silver price update is here & that covers supply, demand and other key factors impacting the metal.   Silver put in its best performance of 2020 in Q3, adding more than 60 percent to its value by mid-August. Surging to a seven year high, the metal neared US$30 per ounce. The price move created a value opportunity for investors. Pushed higher by precious metals demand, industrial declines had less of an impact on silver’s ascent than initially expected, meanwhile, heightened exchange-traded fund buying also factored into the metal’s push to US$29.   However, silver’s strong momentum didn’t last by the end of September; the white metal had shed 27 percent of its Q3 gains to hold in the US$24 range. Silver’s upward momentum in Q3 came after a slow start to the year. The white metal began 2020 at US$18.02 and faced incredible headwinds late in Q1 as the markets fell sharply in response to domino-ing glob

Bring earlier stage projects for Silver! According to the World Silver Survey 2020 by Silver Institute, the main theme for mine output in the medium term is growth. This is partly due to a slight rise for mines already producing as operational improvements and expansions outweigh losses from grade decline and reserve depletion. We can also expect larger gains from new projects, both new primary silver projects (mainly in Mexico) and as a by-product. To avoid losses in the longer term (four to five years out), investment will be required to bring earlier stage projects into production as these are needed to replace lost output from reserve depletion, in both primary silver projects and assets where silver is a by-product.  In addition, disruption from industrial action will likely continue, as a major share of silver production comes from jurisdictions recently prone to disruption and there is little to suggest this trend will cease. The outlook for recycling is mixe

Investors flocked to silver-backed exchange Traded products and silver bullion coins! Silver’s role as a valued investment was broadly on display during the first half of 2020, as investors’ actively accumulated silver in the first six months of the year, leading to a 10 percent gain in investment demand. Paving the way was remarkably strong growth in silver-backed exchange-traded products (ETPs), which have posted successive all-time highs this year, together with solid silver coin and bar investment. The silver price averaged US$16.65 through to the end of June. Having fallen sharply in mid-March, the silver price has since recovered strongly, rising by 56 percent to reach US$17.84 at end-June; it has since broken through the US$18 barrier. The gold: silver ratio the quantity of silver ounces needed to buy an ounce of gold fell since its multi-decade high of 127 in March, and at end-June stood at 97.8, which is still very high by historical standards, and may signal th

Silver and ruthenium coating to get rid of the microbes! Harmful bacteria can survive in space under zero-gravity conditions. That can make for some pretty unhealthy living and working conditions on the International Space Station (ISS), which has been continually inhabited since November 2000. One of the areas which scientists found particularly rife with bacteria is the toilet door. Such infestations are more dangerous for astronauts in space because prolonged time in orbit has been shown to reduce a person’s immune system. Microgravity, along with solar and cosmic radiation, changes the immune-regulatory system of the crew, leaving them more susceptible to pathogens. “Spaceflight can turn harmless bacteria into potential pathogens,” said senior study author Elisabeth Grohmann of Beuth University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, in a prepared statement.  “Just as stress hormones leave astronauts vulnerable to infection, the bacteria they carry become hardier -de

The Amount May Surprise! Wanting to call attention to the amount of rare and valuable metals used in a typical smartphone, scientists at the University of Plymouth, UK, put an iPhone in a blender, heated the pulverized result to 500 degrees C (932 degrees F), then the dissolved the powder in acid to separate out the materials. The phone consisted of 900 milligrams of tungsten, 70 of cobalt, 36 of gold and 90 of silver. Most of the silver was used in electrical connections, switches and miniature components. The phone also contained more common materials such as 33 grams of iron, 13 of silicon and 7 of chromium, as well as smaller quantities of other abundant substances. More than 1.4 billion smartphones are produced each year, and the scientists led by Arjan Dijkstra and Colin Wilkins, geologists from the University’s School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, wanted to illustrate the growing reliance on rare earth materials that puts new demands on the