Retail sites for silver find themselves overwhelmed by an excess demand for both silver bars and coins this week. This surge in demand has likely rolled over from last week’s frenzy, whereby an unprecedented amount of orders for physical assets were placed.
As a result, silver futures surged by more than 8% during early morning trading on Monday. Leading silver retailers such as Apmex, JM Bullion, SD Bullion, and Money Metals revealed that they have been unable to process orders for precious metals in North America, as they are still waiting for Asian markets to open due to an insufficient supply to meet this excess demand.
Tyler Wall, president and chief executive officer at SD Bullion revealed that his company’s inventory of physical silver is almost entirely depleted. He further explained, “Currently we’re seeing the premium—the price you pay over spot to get actual physical silver in your hands—is skyrocketing.”
Robert Higgins, the chief executive officer at Argent Asset Group LLC in Delaware, spoke of how he has been dealing with traders who are desperate to buy silver all day nonstop. Due to the market being so tight, Higgins expressed his opinion that there may not be a direct solution to the issue, except to wait until “things calm down or the market explodes on Sunday at 6 p.m.”
