Silver Prices Continue to Hold Up Well, Downstream End-Users Adopt a Wait-and-See Approach with Cautious Purchases and Light Trading Volume [SMM Daily Review]

During the day, precious metal prices continued to rise, with spot market supply still relatively tight and suppliers' premiums largely unchanged from yesterday. In Shanghai, mainstream quotations for national standard silver ingots by suppliers were at a premium of 35-38 yuan/kg against the TD contract, with transactions meeting rigid demand. Some suppliers held firm on prices at a premium of 40 yuan/kg against the TD contract, but transactions were sluggish. Additionally, some large-scale silver ingot suppliers were holding back and observing, quoting at a premium of 30-35 yuan/kg against the SHFE silver 2502 contract. With rising silver prices and persistently high spot premiums, downstream end-users generally adopted a wait-and-see attitude. Some downstream enterprises, to ensure order production, pre-booked silver ingot orders with smelters for delivery next week; these forward-delivery orders had premiums about 5 yuan/kg lower than the spot premiums for immediate delivery, leading to overall weak spot transactions.