Posted on 10/22/2025 9:01:32 AM PDT by delta7
Shortages hit London too. The silver market is broken.
Key Takeaways Vipin Raina’s company, India’s largest precious metals refinery, ran out of silver stock for the first time in its history due to high demand from Indian customers.
The shortages in India were soon felt globally, with the London silver market also running out of available metal, and traders describing a market that was “all but broken”.
The silver market crisis was caused by a combination of factors, including a multi-year solar power boom, a rush to ship metal to the US to beat possible tariffs, and a sudden spike in demand from India, particularly during the Diwali holiday season.
For months, Vipin Raina had been bracing for a stampede of buying from Indian customers loading up on silver to honor the Hindu goddess of wealth. But when it came, he was still blown away. At the start of last week, his company, India’s largest precious metals refinery, ran out of silver stock for the first time in its history.
“Most people who are dealing silver and silver coins, they’re literally out of stock because silver is not there,” said Raina, who is head of trading at MMTC-Pamp India Pvt. “This kind of crazy market — where people are buying at these levels — I have not seen in my 27-year career.” Within days, the shortages were being felt not just in India, but around the world. India’s festival buyers were joined by international investors and hedge funds piling into precious metals as a bet on the fragility of the US dollar — or simply to follow the market’s irrepressible surge higher.
By the end of last week, the frenzy had rippled across to the London silver market, where global prices are set and where the world’s biggest banks buy and sell in huge quantities. Now, it had run out of available metal. Traders describe a market that was all but broken, where even large banks stepped back from quoting prices as they fielded repeated calls from clients yelling down the line in frustration and exhaustion.
This account of how the silver market broke is based on conversations with more than two dozen traders, bankers, refiners, investors and other market participants, many of whom spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
100-to-1 Ratio When traders and analysts try to pinpoint the immediate cause of the silver crisis of 2025, they inevitably point to India.......
Many say it can take the corrupted banks down ( like Bear Sterns in 2008), let's hope so.
Why would a refinery be using already refined silver?
If out of stock, I’d think it’d be ore.
Wasn’t it just last week that China was offering like double the going rate for silver?
What’s going on?.................
Would you rather have a real Big Mac, or a piece of paper that says “One Big Mac” on it?
IBTG
IBTS
Commodity manipulation.
Same story, different day.
When Gold and Silver bottom out on this correction, buy with both hands. But be careful, because things just got a LOT more volatile.
I have a gut feeling someone or many are about to be taken to the cleaners on silver. It is NOT going to be the big boys. They are probably shorting the market.
Nelson Bunker Hunt, William Herbert Hunt and Lamar Hunt are giggling from whatever corner of the afterlife they inhabit.
I saw that gold was down to almost $4,000.
Then I thought…Gold is STILL above $4,000!
It is nuts.
Ore takes longer to process.
China plans to send all the Silver to Space in their Power Thingie that will fall apart and cause tons more space junk
Lamar was clean of that cornering effort as I recall.
It is common practice for an ore handler to extract the desired metal from the ore and then sell impure ingots to a refinery. That practice greatly reduces shipping costs.
The actual value of gold is more or less unchanged. It is the dollar that is down from where it should be. By design.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.