Silver prices rise to 13-year highs driven by strong demand

Silver prices rose 2.5% to a record high of $36 per ounce, their highest level in more than 13 years, driven by strong industrial demand and persistent supply shortages.

“We’ve been expecting silver to close its performance gap with gold for some time,” said Nitish Shah, commodity strategist at Wisdom Tree. “The metal has solid fundamentals, including a supply shortage and strong industrial demand.”

The gold-to-silver ratio, which reflects the number of ounces of silver needed to buy one ounce of gold, is currently around 94—down from 105 in April, when it reached its highest level since May 2020. A lower gold-to-silver ratio means that silver is gaining value relative to gold.

Given silver’s recent underperformance against gold, Rhona O’Connell, an analyst at StoneX, said: “It seems to me that there’s a relative trade happening now that the price has dropped below the 100 level.”