Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Is There a Shortage of Silver?


Is There a Shortage of Silver?

Some questions we are occasionally asked at ABC Bullion and increasing so of late are:

“Is there a shortage of silver bullion at the moment?”
“What is your wait list time to take delivery of silver bullion?”

Happily we can respond to our customers there is no shortage or delay for purchasing physical silver bullion. With our excellent relationships with refiners in Australia and the PAMP refinery in Switzerland we can supply all your silver bullion needs, regardless of order size.

Does this mean we have never experienced delays in the past or potentially will in the future? No it does not. ABC has experienced delays in the past for some silver bullion products, typically for the mid-range retail products such as 5 & 15kg bars. There were various reasons for such delays, a refinery closure for maintenance or simply demand for a particular bar size outstripping the refiners capacity to pour that size bar. Even though these temporary delays did exist and may well again in the future, it was always a lack of a particular silver product, not an overall shortage of silver metal.

I must admit the recent questions may have been a result of my postings on the ABC blog, in particular these posts, here & here

At ABC Bullion we have always considered silver a rare and precious metal, and have opined in the posts above silver’s dual role as a significant industrial and investment metal does distinguish it from gold.

Silver’s current price encourages consumption and discourages recycling, particularly in those applications that use small quantities, such as mobile phone circuitry. As result there may well come a day when industrial demand and investment demand will clash over the available supply, although we are not there yet, but if that does occur the market as a way to deal this situation, higher prices!

If you are interested in silver bullion, please call us or come into the showroom. We can supply silver bullion for you to take away immediately or we can arrange insured storage for your bullion at no or minimal cost depending on the storage solution you choose. Please visit our main website here: ABC Bullion


Invested in Gold and Silver?


By Peter Degraaf: Nations rise when, through inventions and technology they become economically prosperous. They grow as they enlarge their borders and increase in influence, through conquests or by trade. They fall, when the growing need to pay for promises made, and the cost of foreign wars, drains the treasury.....read on

Gold vs. A-REITs


Due to the positive feedback I received yesterday for the post showing the price performance of Gold vs. the ASX All Ords it got me thinking what else could I compare gold to? Living in Sydney the answer was obvious, Real Estate!

Click on the chart above for the 5 year performance of the S&P/ASX200 A-REIT (index of Australian A-REIT funds - blue line) vs. the price of Gold (red line, using the GLD ETF as a proxy for gold)

Oh for those who don't know what the a A-REIT is I found this description on the ASX website: "A-REIT investors gain exposure to both the value of the real estate the trust owns, and the potential for rental income generated from the properties. The fund manager selects the investment properties and is responsible for all maintenance, administration, rentals, and improvements on the property." read on