Silver · Origin deep dive

Cleared loco London through LPMCL vaults, which also custody the large ETF holdings sitting alongside wholesale float.

LBMA Good Delivery bars of roughly 1,000 ounces, 99.9% minimum fineness, from accredited refiners.

Unallocated transfers settle the market; physical drawdowns move by armored truck and increasingly scarce transatlantic freight capacity.

Bullion banks, ETFs, industrial hedgers and mints drawing on the free float not locked in ETF allocation.

Weak natural seasonality; availability tracks ETF creation-redemption cycles and industrial offtake more than the calendar.

Free-float depletion beneath ETF holdings, lease-rate spikes and EFP-driven vault drains tighten loco-London silver abruptly.

Landed through Mumbai and Ahmedabad air and sea cargo, with UAE-route imports exploiting trade-agreement duty arbitrage.

999-fine bars and industrial grain for jewellery, silverware and a fast-growing solar and electronics fabrication base.

Bank and agency consignments cleared at import duty, then distributed through bullion dealers to fabricators nationwide.

Jewellery and silverware makers, retail investors buying bars and coins, and industrial users in solar and electricals.

Festival and wedding-season buying lifts autumn-winter imports; monsoon rural incomes govern how hard the season pulls.

Duty changes, CEPA-route arbitrage, rupee moves and investment-demand surges flip landed premiums to discounts quickly.

Imports enter licensed vaults against SGE contracts in Shanghai, gated by quota and VAT treatment.

SGE-deliverable 99.99 fine ingots feeding paste makers who print silver onto photovoltaic cells.

Import quota plus VAT structure means the SGE premium widens sharply whenever domestic solar demand outruns permitted inflows.

Solar paste producers dominate marginal demand, alongside electronics, brazing-alloy and jewellery fabricators.

Follows solar cell production schedules and installation-deadline rushes rather than traditional retail gifting seasons.

Photovoltaic paste loadings and thrifting, import-quota policy and the arb versus London set the Shanghai premium.

CME-licensed depositories in New York and Delaware, replenished from London when the futures basis pays the freight.

COMEX-deliverable 1,000-ounce-class bars matching London Good Delivery form, making transatlantic substitution mechanically easy.

Silver's low value-to-weight makes airfreight expensive, so EFP blowouts force costly chartered moves or slow sea freight.

Futures arbitrageurs, bullion banks and industrial hedgers managing the London-New York basis.

Delivery-month cycles and positioning drive the basis; no meaningful physical seasonality at the exchange level.

Tariff-risk episodes, London free-float tightness and freight economics can gap the EFP dramatically, as 2025-26 squeezes showed.

Doré flies under secure carriage from Mexican and Peruvian mine sites to refineries, notably Met-Mex Peñoles at Torreón.

Silver-gold doré bars of variable fineness, priced on assayed content at a payable percentage under refined spot.

Armored ground and air consignments to refiners charging treatment and refining fees before metal returns as Good Delivery.

Primary refiners and trading houses providing offtake financing against future refined delivery.

Steady mine-driven flow; Andean rainy-season disruptions and labor negotiation rounds cause the main timing wobbles.

Mexican and Peruvian mining policy, community blockades, by-product economics at polymetallic mines and payable terms move netbacks.