Price of silver

But if film consumption is declining, and film use represents 1/4 of
the demand for silver, that's a big chunk!

Jean-David Beyer wrote:
UC wrote:
Why is silver going up?

The photographic demand for silver has to be going down.

There is a large exchange traded silver fund wishing to start up. In order
to be allowed to trade, they must have about 1.2 million ounces of silver on
deposit. It would be impossible to buy that much silver on the open market.
About the only possible way to get that much would be to buy it from Warren
Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway that has, fortuitously, about that much London
silver in its possession. London silver has 1/10 the impurities of New York
COMEX silver.

I have no idea how much Mr. Buffett would sell his silver for. But the
silver market may be anticipating that he would not sell it at the price the
promoters of that fund are willing to pay.

Silver demand has exceeded silver production for a long time now. It is
mainly a by-product of copper production, so unless the price of copper goes
up, silver prices will continue to go up.

--
.~. Jean-David Beyer Registered Linux User 85642.
/V\ PGP-Key: 9A2FC99A Registered Machine 241939.
/( )\ Shrewsbury, New Jersey http://counter.li.org
^^-^^ 10:40:00 up 16 days, 13:00, 3 users, load average: 4.47, 4.26, 4.20

UC wrote:
But if film consumption is declining, and film use represents 1/4 of the
demand for silver, that's a big chunk!

Not compared to the demand of people who fear inflation and are buying gold
and silver as a hedge.

--
.~. Jean-David Beyer Registered Linux User 85642.
/V\ PGP-Key: 9A2FC99A Registered Machine 241939.
/( )\ Shrewsbury, New Jersey http://counter.li.org
^^-^^ 11:00:00 up 16 days, 13:20, 3 users, load average: 4.31, 4.37, 4.29

Jean-David Beyer wrote:
UC wrote:
But if film consumption is declining, and film use represents 1/4 of the
demand for silver, that's a big chunk!

Not compared to the demand of people who fear inflation and are buying gold
and silver as a hedge.

http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readm...msgid=22222732

--
.~. Jean-David Beyer Registered Linux User 85642.
/V\ PGP-Key: 9A2FC99A Registered Machine 241939.
/( )\ Shrewsbury, New Jersey http://counter.li.org
^^-^^ 11:20:00 up 16 days, 13:40, 3 users, load average: 4.27, 4.28, 4.24

UC wrote:
But if film consumption is declining, and film use represents 1/4 of
the demand for silver, that's a big chunk!

But silver is used in electronics which are proliferating all over the
world - just like film used to. I think every soldered joint has a bit
of silver.

UC spake thus:

Peter Chant wrote:

Mike wrote:

You think photographic demand is the _primary_ demand for
silver?! Its not.

It's 1/4, according to what I found.

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver),
photography is "the largest single end use of silver". Summarizing the
uses from their article (no percentages, unfortunately):

o Electrical contacts and conductive coatings (printed circuits)
o Reflective coatings for mirrors
o Coins [definitely a declining use]
o Jewelry
o Dental usage
o Catalyst usage
o Solder
o Batteries
o Explosives (silver fulminate)
o Cement for glass (silver chloride)
o pH testing electrodes (silver chloride)
o Cloud seeding (silver iodide)
o Medical uses (silver nitrate & silver sufladiazine, both declining)


So what was your question again?


--
To the arrogant putzes at NBC:

Do we call the country Italia? Is its capital Roma?
Were previous Olympics held in Moskva, Muenchen or Athine?
Do we call it the "Shroud of Torino"?

No!

So learn to speak English already and call it Turin.

- from someone's blog

Mike wrote:
But if film consumption is declining, and film use represents 1/4 of
the demand for silver, that's a big chunk!

But silver is used in electronics which are proliferating all over the
world - just like film used to. I think every soldered joint has a bit
of silver.

Lots of electro-mechanical switches use silver

But I buy Jean-David's argument on inflation fears.
The real truth is that the digital camera manufacturers are secretly
buying up silver to drive the price of film up and thereby hastening
its demise. It is a conspiracy to do in film.

Scott

"David Nebenzahl" wrote in message
s.com...
UC spake thus:

Peter Chant wrote:

Mike wrote:

You think photographic demand is the _primary_ demand
for
silver?! Its not.

It's 1/4, according to what I found.

According to Wikipedia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver), photography is "the
largest single end use of silver". Summarizing the uses
from their article (no percentages, unfortunately):

o Electrical contacts and conductive coatings (printed
circuits)
o Reflective coatings for mirrors
o Coins [definitely a declining use]
o Jewelry
o Dental usage
o Catalyst usage
o Solder
o Batteries
o Explosives (silver fulminate)
o Cement for glass (silver chloride)
o pH testing electrodes (silver chloride)
o Cloud seeding (silver iodide)
o Medical uses (silver nitrate & silver sufladiazine, both
declining)


So what was your question again?


At one time Kodak was the largest consumer of Silver in
the world with the exception of the U.S.Government (when
silver was still used in coins). However Silver is subject
to speculation so its price varies around.


--
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA

On 10 Mar 2006 in rec.photo.darkroom, Richard Knoppow wrote:

At one time Kodak was the largest consumer of Silver in
the world with the exception of the U.S.Government (when
silver was still used in coins). However Silver is subject
to speculation so its price varies around.

Nelson Bunker Hunt and his brother William Herbert Hunt:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Bunker_Hunt

--
Joe Makowiec
http://makowiec.org/
Email: http://makowiec.org/contact/?Joe

UC wrote:
Why is silver going up?

The photographic demand for silver has to be going down.

I shouldn't be surprised if photographic demand is actually going up.
While film use and production has reduced, people are printing more than
ever. Lab printing, even of digital, is all silver based.
Additionally, there is a worldwide push for electronic products to be
manufactured with lead-free solder. Most lead-free solder alloys contain
silver, so that is another demand driver.

Graham Fountain spake thus:

UC wrote:

Why is silver going up?

The photographic demand for silver has to be going down.

I shouldn't be surprised if photographic demand is actually going up.
While film use and production has reduced, people are printing more than
ever. Lab printing, even of digital, is all silver based.
Additionally, there is a worldwide push for electronic products to be
manufactured with lead-free solder. Most lead-free solder alloys contain
silver, so that is another demand driver.

And don't forget printing. (I mean *real* printing--offset, not digital
stuff, although even some of that uses silver too.) Film for those who
still use it (not all printers have gone the direct-to-digital route),
and even some all-digital processes, such as polyester plates, use
silver too.


--
To the arrogant putzes at NBC:

Do we call the country Italia? Is its capital Roma?
Were previous Olympics held in Moskva, Muenchen or Athine?
Do we call it the "Shroud of Torino"?

No!

So learn to speak English already and call it Turin.

- from someone's blog