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(Washington, D.C. - March 28, 2011) A report released today by the Silver Institute forecasts a healthy outlook for global silver industrial demand, the largest component of annual silver fabrication demand. The report states that industrial uses of silver should rise sharply over the next five years to 666 million troy ounces (Moz) by 2015, representing 60 percent of total fabrication demand that year -- a 36 percent increase over 2010's figure of 487 Moz.

The report, The Future of Silver Industrial Demand, was produced by the leading precious metals consultancy, GFMS Ltd, on behalf of the Silver Institute. The report assesses the future prospect of total silver industrial demand over the next five years, and where sector growth opportunities are likely to emerge. The report underscores silver's unique characteristics that make it the metal of choice for a wide range of established industrial uses, particularly in electronics and thermal applications.

The report also focuses on many new uses that rely on silver's antibacterial qualities, where the incorporation of silver makes the difference between an ordinary product and a unique one. Noteworthy in the report is the potential market impact of 11 recent applications that incorporate silver. These uses which range from food packaging to radio frequency identification tags to autocatalysts, taken together could exceed 40 Moz of industrial demand by 2015.
Key findings from the report:

The report maintains that stronger silver industrial demand in the U.S. and Asia will be a key factor in driving growth in the global total through 2015, and healthy developing country demand especially in markets such as China and India, will also be an important factor.

Much of the forecast growth will come from established applications, such as silver's use in electrical contacts and in the photo-voltaic market.

The technical proficiency of silver limits the ability to switch in favor of lower-cost alternatives, making the metal largely price inelastic.

Emerging end-uses that benefit from silver's antibacterial properties or incorporate silver's electrical and thermal conductivity are expected to boost silver consumption through 2015.

"The report demonstrates how buoyant silver industrial demand is, not only because of the lack of substitution, but also because of the wide range of established and growing new uses that make up industrial demand," stated Michael DiRienzo, Executive Director of the Silver Institute. "This report maintains that we expect to see robust gains in industrial silver demand over the next five years, further emphasizing silver's essential role in industry," DiRienzo added.

Please click on the link below to download your electronic copy of The Future of Silver Industrial Demand report.

http://www.silverinstitute.org/images/stories/silver/PDF/futuresilverindustrialdemand.pdf

The Silver Institute is a nonprofit international industry association headquartered in Washington, D.C. Established in 1971, the Institute serves as the industry's voice in increasing public understanding of the value and many uses of silver.

While much of silver's recent move has been attributed to concerns about the state of the global economy, a number of analysts expect silver's industrial uses to come strongly to the fore when the economy does recover.

Geoff Candy
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
www.mineweb.com
GRONINGEN

Silver is often viewed as a horse with two masters. On the one hand it is viewed as a monetary instrument and valued in the same way as gold, as an asset of last resort but, on the other hand it is viewed as an industrial metal.
In the recent past, with the advent of digital technology, one of the metal's main industrial uses - photographic film - declined significantly while at the same time people were beginning to focus more attention on its monetary attributes, especially once silver ETFs were introduced to investors.
Now, as silver continues to hit highs not seen for 30 years, it is the resurgent industrial uses for the metal that people are hoping will propel it to new highs.
Speaking to Mineweb last week, John Licata, chief investment officer for Blue Phoenix investments, said that currently, silver is much more of a leading indicator for economic health than copper is.
"There are just more uses to silver these days and those uses continue grow. You're talking about using silver in solar, increased uses in battery technology - we're very enthusiastic about going forward. There have been many more uses of silver in the medical world - in eyeglasses, in water purification - and it's still being used for jewellery although it's not as prominent in use in photography, it still is used in photography."
Independent silver expert and author of the Morgan Report, David Morgan agrees with Licata that Silver's industrial role has increased. Speaking to Mineweb last week, he said, "Silver's industrial use is about 54% of the market based upon the GFMS study that is printed for the Silver Institute. If you go back a decade it was roughly 35% - it's the biggest segment of the market and also the fastest growing although you could argue in the last couple of years that the investment demand has accelerated quite a bit as well.
"The industrialized information age requires silver more than it ever has in the past - anything electronic or electrical requires silver so I'm tending to agree that in a high-tech modern age where again a decade ago, the average per capita silver use in China is 1/70 the amount of the northern hemisphere of the United States or Canada. That ratio is narrowing - more and more Chinese are getting iPods, cell phones, flat screen TVs, laptop computers, using more electricity and getting all kinds of access to electronic goods, and because of that, it's knowing that 1/70 or moving it up more toward the western nations and that will put more and more demand on the silver market as it industrializes, as it moves into the information age. "
Indeed, in Licata's view, the current outlook for silver is extremely positive as the price is being supported by investment demand on the one side as concerns of further economic declines push people to the metal for its safe haven properties and, while on the other side, a pull back in these concerns would spell better economic growth in the West and an uptick in its industrial uses.
"I do think that there could be an aversion to commodities in general if rates get hiked up and again many of these things I'm discussing are things that I'm looking for in the back half of 2011, but if they happen sooner then I think that we can see some commodities, including silver, pull back though. But ...a pull back would be a very healthy thing because from an industrial perspective there's great upside so if the economy starts to turn around, that initial sell-off can turn out to be a reason for silver prices to continue that move towards $25.50."