Silver on track for fifth straight supply shortfall and other Silver news

Silver charted its fifth consecutive structural market deficit in 2025 based on preliminary analysis of the data. The shortfall will likely exacerbate tight supply issues that have precipitated a significant silver squeeze.

This is one of several stories covered in the latest issue of Silver News, published by the Silver Institute.

A convergence of market dynamics, including tariff concerns, a liquidity squeeze resulting in record-high lease rates, and ongoing geopolitical risks, drove silver up just under 148 percent in 2025. However, there is one overwhelming issue impacting the market – there isn’t enough silver.

Silver demand outstripped supply for four straight years, and even with a 4 percent year-on-year drop in demand, the Silver Institute projects that 2025 will be the fifth. The structural market deficit came in at 148.9 million ounces in 2024. That drove the four-year market shortfall to 678 million ounces. Including the projected 2025 shortfall, the market deficit will likely be well over 800 million ounces, an entire year of mining output.

In 2025, the global mined silver supply is expected to remain flat year-on-year at 813 million ounces. Higher Mexican and Russian production will be offset by lower output in Peru and Indonesia.

The Silver Institute covered several other silver-related stories in the latest issue of Silver News.

• The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has added silver to its 2025 Critical Minerals List, a roster that includes copper, uranium, aluminum, and nickel, raising the total number to 60 minerals from 50 in 2022. Adding silver to the list could encourage accelerated support for streamlining permit processes, reducing regulatory burdens, providing federal investment incentives, and introducing strategic stockpiling and trade policies that could include tariffs to reduce dependence on imports.
• The world’s largest silver bar was unveiled during the Dubai Precious Metals Conference in November. The bar weighs in at 1,971kg (4,345 pounds). The 999.9 pure bar measures 1.3 meters (4.3 feet) in length. It pays homage to 1971, the year that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was founded. The bar will reportedly be tokenized, allowing fractional ownership of the bar.
• Corning hopes that a $1.5 billion investment in a new Michigan solar wafer facility will spur domestic end-to-end production of solar cells. Solar wafers are the substrate upon which solar cells are produced, and the wafers will be sent to other U.S. companies for use in manufacturing the cells.
• The Reserve Bank of India will allow silver to be used as collateral for loans beginning in April. According to government officials, the move is designed to make credit more accessible to those who own silver coins and jewelry in the same way that gold can be used to back loans.
• A new study could boost the use of silver as a catalyst. Researchers from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities College of Science and Engineering and the University of Houston’s Cullen College of Engineering have measured the tiny amount of an electron that makes catalytic manufacturing possible. This ability to measure the fraction of an electron involved in catalysis could lower costs and increase speed in many industries, from manufacturing to oil production.