Industrial demand for silver - thoughts on its future impact?
- •Been thinking a lot lately about how industrial demand is going to play out for silver.
- •As someone who’s worked in steel for decades down here in Birmingham, I’ve got a pretty good feel for industrial cycles and how commodities move.
- •It feels like everyone focuses on silver as a precious metal, the poor man's gold, etc.
Been thinking a lot lately about how industrial demand is going to play out for silver. As someone who’s worked in steel for decades down here in Birmingham, I’ve got a pretty good feel for industrial cycles and how commodities move. It feels like everyone focuses on silver as a precious metal, the poor man's gold, etc. – which is true to a point – but the vast majority of its consumption is industrial. Solar panels, EV's, electronics... the list goes on. All these green initiatives are silver-heavy. My Gold IRA's got a decent chunk of silver in it, maybe 20% of my total 400k, so I'm obviously paying close attention.
My concern is this: if the global economy truly slows down, or worse, takes a dive, will the demand for these industrial applications drop off enough to significantly hit silver prices? Or is the push for renewables and electrification strong enough now that it creates a somewhat inelastic demand floor for silver, even in a recession? I know there's talk about thrifting and substitution, but for some critical uses, silver just performs better. Silicon Valley isn't going to ditch silver in high-performance chips because copper is cheaper. There's a performance threshold.
I was playing around with that "Silver vs Stocks" tool on Gold IRA Blueprint (I used the 10-year view https://silvervsstocks.goldirablueprint.com/?period=10Y) and it really highlights the volatility compared to equities, but also some of the significant upward moves. It makes me wonder if industrial demand could smooth out some of those violent dips, or if it makes the booms even bigger if supply can't keep up. For those of you tracking this stuff more closely than I am, what's your take?
Are we underestimating the resilience of industrial silver demand, or is it going to be a major headwind if things get bumpy? Especially interested to hear from anyone else with commodity experience. Thanks!