Higher Smartphone Shipments to Send Silver Prices Higher?
If you want to know where silver prices are headed, pay attention to the demand for technological products in the coming years. It says that silver could soar.
Don’t think of silver as just a precious, pretty metal. You see, silver has several industrial uses. It is used in variety of consumer electronics and technologies across industries.
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For example, silver is used in cell phones and tablets. How much silver is used in a typical smartphone? An “iPhone,” for example, has roughly 0.34 grams of silver (among other metals). (Source: “You old phone is full of untapped precious metals,” BBC, October 18, 2016.)
Just stay focused on smartphones for now. This year, according to Gartner Inc, a leading research and advisory company, 1.882 billion mobile phones will be shipped in 2017, 1.926 billion in 2018, and 1.932 billion in 2019. (Source: “Gartner Says Worldwide Device Shipments Will Increase 2 Percent in 2018, Reaching Highest Year-Over-Year Growth Since 2015,” Gartner Inc., October 17, 2017.)
Let’s do some simple math…
Between 2017 and 2019, 5.74 billion phones will be shipped. Assuming they use just 0.3 grams of silver, 1.72 billion grams (60.74 million ounces) of silver will be needed in smartphones alone.
As it stands, it doesn’t look like smartphone use is ending anytime soon. A lot more smartphones (and therefore, silver) could be needed in the future. This could cause silver prices to soar.
Solar Technology Could Need a Lot of Silver
Moving beyond smartphones, look at solar technology as well; it’s booming. It may not be very evident in North America, but look at emerging economies like India and China, or at Europe. They are making solid strides to make solar power a dominant energy source.
To provide some perspective, in 2012, globally, solar power amounted to 29.9 gigawatts. By 2022, it’s expected to be 110.1 gigawatts. In 2016, it was 78 gigawatts. (Source: “Forecast of demand for solar photovoltaic power globally from 2007 to 2022 (in gigawatts),” Statista, last accessed November 2, 2017.)
Here’s the thing; to get to that sort of energy from the sun, a lot of solar panels are going to be needed. An average solar panel has about 20 grams of silver in it. (Source: “You can’t have solar without silver,” USA Today, August 29, 2014.)
If you extrapolate, you could figure out how much more silver will be needed for solar panels in the coming years. This could have a positive impact on silver prices as well.
Silver Prices Outlook: Why Ignoring Silver Could Be a Big Mistake
But don’t get fixated on silver being used in smartphones and solar panels; the metal is also used in photography, in the pharmaceutical industry, in dentistry, for water purification…and the list goes on.
As this is all happening, keep in mind that silver producers are scrambling. They can’t produce profitably at the current silver prices. They have also cut back significantly on their exploration spending. So, production in the future is very questionable.
Dear reader, investors are currently busy paying attention to the stock markets and phenomena like Bitcoin. They are ignoring silver prices at a time when the fundamentals of the gray metal market are improving.
I truly believe that patient investors could reap massive rewards with silver. Ignoring the metal could be a big mistake.
