Credit: Flickr / Aleksey Gnilenkov / CC-BY 2.0

Investors can anticipate volatility in silver prices through 2018. The market can move higher, which can be attributed to growing demand and shrinking supply, as per the experts.

Silver enjoys a versatile landscape and has unrivalled characteristics perfect for industrial products like the jewellery sector. In this context, Michael DiRienzo, Executive Director of the Silver Institute, stated that the strong industrial demand, jewellery demand, coin demand, and renewed investor interest would continue to back the market even as mine production is expected to decline for the second consecutive year by nearly 2% in 2018.

DiRienzo said that the growing solar power demand and the automotive sector could be considered two important factors that boost silver’s industrial demand. He also added that the silver demand for photovoltaic cells could achieve a milestone record in 2018.

DiRienzo said that the diversity of silver was large and added that the continued rising volumes of applications are expected to impact silver consumption from industrial products this year positively. Also, looking at the jewellery market, the demand might rise around 4% in 2018, around a 1% increase from the last year.

Meanwhile, the physical bullion demand was considered a disappointing sector last year, and the paper market would see a demand for silver-backed exchange-traded products to rise 3% in 2018.