This Week’s Market Update Summary
- China is paying high premiums for silver bullion, likely due to their plans for large-scale solar power development.
- Western media is overlooking the increasing use of silver in modern solar panels.
- Solar panel prices are low, but silver content per panel is rising.
- China aims to quadruple its solar power capacity by 2030, requiring massive amounts of silver.
- Analyst projections suggest silver demand for solar panels could reach 300 million ounces per year by 2044.
- China is adding, not reducing, silver content in their solar panels for efficiency and lifespan.
- The silver price is projected to rise significantly in the coming years due to surging demand.
- Gold also has bullish potential, with central banks accumulating gold reserves.
- Investors are advised to consider adding gold and silver to their portfolios.
- Silver prices in various currencies are on the rise, with the potential for further gains.
But to begin, I want to focus on a chart regarding ongoing high silver premiums which continue being paid in China for industrial sized 1,000 oz silver bullion bars.
The latest data shows China recently paying $3.75 oz over LBMA silver price points for silver bullion and the main reason likely why are their dominant and further ambitious silver solar power plans to come.
This is China's most recent solar power plant completion. The largest in the world, but they are only getting started. Their stated solar ambitions suggest they will need 100s more of such solar power parks by the end of this decade. More on that in a minute, first just a closer look at the size and scale of this recently launched solar power plant.
Meanwhile, western fiat financialized media is barely taking notice, years late in figuring out that industrial silver use per state of the art solar panels is not going down, but rather going up in terms of silver weight per panel.
Here is Bloomberg today:
Solar panel module prices are at an all time low at the moment, but silver, which seems to be increasing in its use per panel, is still only 11% of the total cost unit.
Of course that will be rising, and China knows that it has been willing to pay upwards of over 12% of the western silver price quotes to get as much physical silver as it can now, not later when prices per her ambitious solar power panel plans will be exorbitantly higher than they are now.
Let's look at how ambitious China is regarding her coming silver solar panel production plans.
At the moment China has just over a world leading 250 GW in solar power capacity.
But she has aims to more than 4 fold that in the coming five and a half years.
What does China's stated goal of 1200 GW of silver solar panel capacity using state of the art heavy silver lode solar panels by 2030 look like?
Well this the world's current largest silver solar panel park in China is 5 GW of power. So to hit their 2030 year goal of 1200 GW they'll need about 190 more silver sucking solar power plants using this state of the art 2024 technology looking ahead.
Green Energy analyst Matt Watson has some interesting silver demand charts that are worth looking at projecting demand totals out for the coming decades.
Given his assumptions, by 2030 world silver demand per year will be hitting nearly 1.4 billion oz per year. And while I find his net physical silver investment demand assumptions throughout this decade into next highly questionable.
What really isn't questionable is the silver solar panel projections given current and coming stated demands. Conservatively he's calling for over 300 million oz of silver solar demand per year for as far out as two decades from now.
Other silver solar power market analysts are calling for even crazier coming silver solar power demand figures, as high as a half billion oz of silver solar demand alone by 2027.
And as we have covered here of late China, the world leader in silver solar panel production has not been slimming down the inputs of silver into their state of the art solar panels, rather they have been adding silver loads to their newest panels to increase efficiency and panel lifespans.
Again this is only solar industrial demand, we haven't even touched upon the coming ramp up in investment demands for silver globally.
The old rigged US Gov't CPI high price of silver looking backwards is currently $168.89 oz.
And just China's silver solar panel ambitions alone throughout the remainder of this decade make the Hunt Brothers look like they were playing a game of tiddlywinks.
On the other side of this break we will look around both the western and eastern world to see how both gold and silver have performed thus far in 2024, and look at the silver price cup handle breakouts already running and others preparing to do so likely later on as this decade plays out.
The silver and gold markets traded sideways and slightly down respectively on the week.
The spot silver price finished the month, quarter, and half year point at just over $29 oz bid.
The spot gold price finished just over $2,325 oz bid and with gold brought slightly stronger than silver on the week.
The spot gold silver ratio finished at 79.
The World Gold Council was out this week with results from a survey of 525 North American investors.
They found that almost 1/3rd of North American investors surveyed plan on increasing their respective typically tiny next to none gold investment allocations over the next 1 to 1 and a half years.
How much would you like to wager that 525 of these asset managers would be shocked to learn that 60 / 40 portfolios replacing bonds with gold over the last 5 or 2 decades could have resulted in better returns even with gold going through a brutal bear market from 1980 to the early 2000s?
What happens over the next two decades as bonds inevitably go though secular bear markets for the ages?
Instead of front running this gold bullion over bonds trade like central banks are currently doing in record size and gold bullion buying volumes these last three years 2022 through the end of this year 2024.
Western asset managers have been selling off their unsecured gold ETF holdings to the tune of about 1/8th the size they once held just in 2011 alone.
Where did most of that unsecured 400 oz gold go over the last 13 years or so?
Well, the 2011 to 2020 western world unsecured gold bar siphon mostly went east to China and India respectively.
Since Covid 2020 though a lot of the unsecured gold bullion bar float has gone to central banks.
As they admit over these last three years 2022 through the end of this year 2024 to have been buying gold in record size.
They are buying bullion over bonds increasingly so, I strongly suggest we all do likewise.
Now onwards to see how gold and silver spot prices have performed through the first half of this year 2024.
This is the annual fiat US dollar gold price chart from 1970 until this week in 2024.
Each blue bar represents a positive year in price performance with both bottom and top intra-year price wicks showing.
The spot price breakout for gold is only just beginning in fiat US dollar terms. It will likely take nearing $3,000 oz gold before North American investment managers start doing the work required to lose the gold illiteracy they were purposely never educated on.
On the silver side of the year thus far in fiat US dollar terms, yes we are up, but the potential for an even stronger close on 2024 remains given bullish fundamentals building globally.
Our neighbors to the north give our green US dollar goggles a look at our likely nominal price futures.
Gold in fiat Canadian dollars has blown over 3100 oz and will likely make a run much higher as the year progresses.
The silver fiat Canadian dollar chart also looks bullish as prices up north might break their 2011 highs before this year plays out, stay tuned.
Looking over at the second most important fiat currency unit in the world, the fiat Euro gold price is breaking out, we'll see if $2500 gets threatened by year end.
On the silver fiat euro price chart, the old 2011 high is within range when silver gets running further to the upside.
Moving to the fiat yuan gold price in China, we can see why so many investors were buying gold so heavily to start the year, it performed very well thus far in 2024.
On the silver fiat yuan chart we can see a cup forming and it won't be many years from now when China will have to pay record nominal price high levels for the silver solar panels she has ambitions for.
Turning to the fiat yen Japanese gold price, up and away it has been this first half of 2024.
On the fiat yen silver price chart, they are still just under half their 1980 price high even as the yen is devaluing terribly. Silver is still dirt cheap in the land of the rising sun.
The fiat gold price down in Australian dollar terms is again blasting higher.
The silver fiat Aussie dollar price has already pierced its 1980 and 2011 highs respectively this year.
They are merely showing us US investors how our price charts will look not many years from now.
And finally the massive gold buying fiat rupee price chart in India illustrates why they have generationally been buying gold for millennia.
And their fiat rupee silver price chart has busted out and here is CNBC's Manisha Gupta to tell us more.
The rest of this year sure.
But just the exploding silver solar panel demand data we covered here alone suggests higher silver prices not just for years but even decades to come.
That will be all for our weekly SD Bullion Market Update.
And as always to you out there, take great care of yourselves and those you love.
