Scrap silver calculator
Learn the real value of silver
Knowing the true value of silver can be tricky. A scrap silver calculator can be very useful for some instances, but there’s a deeper concern for people who are investing in silver. Silver prices suffered a great rise in the past year, yet the experts still say that it is an undervalued precious metal. What is it to be of this market in the future? Should you invest in silver?
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The past and future of silver
The past of silver is commonly known; it has been used for millennia as decoration, for utensils, for exchange, and as the base of many financial systems. Today, its applications varied a lot, and now silver is mainly used in electronics and photography. Yet it was never valued as much as other metals and, in the modern era, it has consistently been one of the less expensive metals.
In the past year, a total of 896.1 million ounces of silver were used in the world, with the highest demand being in the industrial sector who used some 486.8 million ounces. It is followed by 200.5 million ounces directed towards physical investments, 148.6 to jewelry, 101 in photovoltaics, and 27.6 in photography (plus some various applications). And just within this year, the USA has already exported 58 million dollars of silver. I bet they used a silver price calculator with all these figures!
But considering these numbers, and the fact that the demand for silver rose considerably in the last 12 months, suffering a spot price increment of 74% (in comparison, gold prices have risen 6.4% in a year), it is safe to say that this trend will keep going up. The latest industrial applications on emerging technologies, like solar power, healthcare, and 5G mobile network, will keep this demand high. 50% of global demand for silver is for industrial production, while it is only 15% in the case of gold; so the rebound of these industries after the Covid economic decay will only benefit this market.
The demand for silver is high, but what about the supply? Well, part of this increment in the price has to do with the fact that the supply of silver is struggling to keep up with the market needs. The “Silver Institute” data shows there has been more demand than supply of the precious metal so far this year. Today, most silver is obtained as a side product of the mining of lead and copper ore. Recycled silver is a growing source that could be further exploited to cover a good percentage of the global needs. The traditional sources of silver might not be up to the task of covering this need, so new resources will have to come up. Today, 15% of the world’s supply comes from recycled silver, half of this coming from industrial recycling, but this is not enough to keep up with the market exigencies.
56.6 million ounces of silver were recycled in the last year in the US, which is by far the largest recycler in the world. And if you want to start participating in this growing sector, you’ll definitely need a silver melt value calculator.
Is silver undervalued?
When we talk about the value of silver, it is inevitable to compare it with gold. The silver and gold markets are strongly related and often evolve together. Factors that make gold prices rise have the same effect on silver, and their behavior is similar, even though silver prices can be more volatile than gold due to the fact that it’s cheaper.
Many analysts claim that silver is undervalued relative to gold, the opinion being that silver’s price should be nearly 20-30% higher than it currently is. The main reason why experts think it is undervalued is that the rise in the price of silver has been “lagging” in comparison to the gold price. Historically, the ratio of ounces of silver that you can buy for the price of an ounce of gold is fixed at 60, yet currently, this ratio is at 70. This means that either the price of silver is going to keep rising even after the growth of gold has stabilized, or the price of gold is going to decrease a lot, which is not likely to happen given the expanding demand for gold.
Silver scrap recycling – A Great Opportunity
With all this data in mind, the predictions for the future of silver are very good and indicate that this market will keep growing. Therefore, it is a great time to invest in silver, especially in the US—the great consumer of silver in the world with a 22% share of consumption.
As we briefly mentioned above, a great opportunity to invest in silver is recycling silver scrap. Not only because it is an underexploited source, but also because it is sustainable and consistent. The way you would do this is by gathering (either collecting or buying) silver scrap and sending it to a silver refinery to get it purified. You can later sell it and win the price difference or keep it as a physical investment.
In this scenario, a silver calculator will be your best companion. Either if you are buying scrap or sending it to a refinery, you will need to check the prices and costs of processing to evaluate if a deal is convenient or not.
