Spot Market and China Inventory Brief Review (April 23, 2026) [SMM Silver Market Weekly Review]

Published: Apr 23, 2026 17:54

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This week, the premium in the silver ingot market continued to decline, consumption remained weak, registered warrants and bank floor-pricing gradually became the mainstream operations of suppliers, and silver ingot social inventory increased significantly.

The price spread between the SGE TD price and the SHFE June contract narrowed to 10-30 yuan/kg this week. As of Thursday, the premium of national-standard silver ingots over TD in the Shanghai market continued to decline to slight discount transactions, with quoted prices dropping to a TD discount of 40-0 yuan/kg. Downstream consumption remained sluggish, and the market trend of just-in-time procurement with significant bargaining to lower premiums persisted. Most suppliers indicated that the majority of transactions had fallen to around a 20 yuan/kg discount to SGE TD. Registering warrants and seeking banks or institutions as backstops gradually became mainstream operations for traders. Investment demand in the Shenzhen market remained sluggish, and spot market transactions stayed sluggish.
Inventory side, pessimistic expectations for PV orders continued to weigh this week. Silver ingot spot market consumption remained lackluster. Stockpiling enthusiasm among silver nitrate, silver powder, and silver paste enterprises remained low. Social inventory of silver ingots in Shanghai and Shenzhen saw a notable cumulative increase.

Data Source Statement: Except for publicly available information, all other data are processed by SMM based on publicly available information, market communication, and relying on SMM's internal database model. They are for reference only and do not constitute decision-making recommendations.

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