More than 1100 dollars per kilo. Modest if we compare it to gold – more than 80 times more expensive –, this price reached by silver in mid-October remains no less remarkable. First of all, because the almost continuous rise in prices since the start of 2024 has reached levels not seen since 2012. Then, this dynamic is driven by industrial uses, which will represent 58% of the demand for silver in 2024, compared to 42% in 2015! A lasting trend which, as in the case of gold, favors a consolidation of the sector, while the acquisitions of mines in Mexico, the leading producer of silver in the world.
In fact, money is in fashion. At the beginning of October, the American precious metals giant Coeur Mining announced that it was putting $1.7 billion on the table for the buyout (still subject to traditional regulatory approvals) to buy the Canadian Silvercrest and its brand new Las Chispas mine in Mexico. The month before, Canadian First Majestic bought Gatos Silver (another medium-sized Mexican producer) for 970 million.
A popular metal for photovoltaics
Of course, the stellar form of gold, prized by investors to the point of reaching nearly 89,000 dollars per kilo (up 39% compared to the start of the year) is not for nothing in this appetite. . But far from just jewelry and bullion, silver is also unparalleled for conducting electricity and is used in a host of cutting-edge technologies, particularly electronics. It now benefits from the impressive growth of photovoltaics, where it is used in the form of printed grids to collect the electricity produced by cells.
Today, the explosion in the quantity of solar panels produced around the world and the emergence of new, more money-intensive technologies (called top-con and heterojunction) are causing the need to explode. Result: silver demand for solar grew by more than 60% in 2023, to just under 200 million ounces (16% of the total).
The market, in deficit, draws on its stocks. Enough to give headaches to panel producers, when the precious metal represents between 5 and 10% of the price of a module and could prove to be “a significant source of additional costs if prices were to increase», Explains Gaëtan Masson, director of the specialized consulting firm Becquerel Institute and co-president of the European lobby of solar panel manufacturers (ESMC).
Faced with this situation, the coming years will be difficult and crucial. The most alarmist projections note that solar power could exhaust almost all known silver reserves by 2050. Others point to the arrival of economical technologies (copper-based collectors, rear base contacts, etc.). .) and the contribution of recycling, and anticipate a peak in demand for primary silver around 2030. In all cases, the increase in prices puts pressure. #
You are reading an article from L’Usine Nouvelle 3732-3733 – July-August 2024, updated in October 2024
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Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
