Significant Silver Price Surge Hits New Highs, Downstream Buyers Generally Adopt Wait-and-See Approach, Trading Turns Quiet [SMM Daily Review]

During the day, precious metals prices hit new historical highs, leading to a noticeable decline in downstream purchasing intentions, with significant disparities in market quotations. In Shanghai, mainstream quotations for national standard silver ingots from suppliers were at premiums of 35-40 yuan/kg against TD. Some suppliers offered discounts of 10-5 yuan/kg against the SHFE silver 2602 contract, while a few large smelters held back small quantities of silver ingots, quoting premiums of 5 yuan/kg against the SHFE silver 2602 contract or premiums of 40-43 yuan/kg against TD. Some smelters slightly lowered their premiums to 25-30 yuan/kg for pre-sale cargoes self-picked up from production sites due to hedging pressure. With downstream end-users' operating expectations declining and silver prices rising, purchasing intentions were significantly insufficient. Market transactions were mainly between traders and a very small amount of rigid demand, and suppliers' quotations still varied widely, resulting in an overall weak spot transaction market.