Signs of Silver Shortages

There are several signs of silver shortages brewing. Investors who have interest in paper silver like SLV or AGQ need to be aware of this as their holdings could blow up in a very short time frame if they don't notice the current shortages in the physical silver market.

First, the most important indicator for the physical market is the silver sales at the U.S. Mint. Second, on that first day of silver sales at the U.S. Mint, the trading volume on the Shanghai Gold Exchange’s 99.99 gold physical contract shot through the roof, hitting a record of 19,504.8 kilograms, after double-counting transactions in both directions. Third, we see that the premiums on Silver American Eagles for APMEX (American Precious Metals Exchange) are soaring to $4 for a single ounce of silver. Fourth, we can see these premiums for Silver American Eagles even go up on eBay, with prices going from  $38/ounce to even $60/ounce, while the spot price is only $32/ounce (18 January 2013). Fifth, we saw yesterday that Apple Inc. (AAPL) has seen delays in their new 21.5″ iMacs, which were announced on the 23th of October 2012. There are production problems occurring at this moment due to a shortage in silver in China. This silver is used extensively in these iMacs. The delay of these iMacs is already spanning a period of 3 months to date. Sixth, on Wednesday 16 January 2013, the iShares Silver ETF (SLV) has bought a huge amount of silver in the amount of 571.63 tonnes of new silver (183,378,092 ounces) in just one day. Seventh, just a week ago, Swiss gold refiners (who are the world's gold hub) announced that silver's counterpart, namely gold, had major delivery issues due to large gold bullion demand. As 70% of the world's gold transits through Switzerland's refiners, this event shouldn't be ignored.

There are now countless indicators that the silver demand is exploding while the silver supply should be dropping due to the low price of silver at this moment.

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