Spot silver is trading at $75.60 per ounce on June 1, 2026, up approximately 118 percent year-on-year. The precious metal hit an all-time high around $121.6 per ounce on January 29, 2026 before correcting roughly 40 percent, but remains at levels that would have been unthinkable just two years ago.
The silver market is in its sixth consecutive annual structural deficit. The 2026 shortfall is forecast at approximately 46.3 million ounces, wider than the previous year's deficit, as industrial demand growth continues to outpace the available supply from both mining and recycling.
The deficit narrative is fundamental to the silver bull case. Each year of shortfall reduces above-ground inventories (visible stocks measured in ETFs and exchange warehouses), progressively tightening the physical market. The cumulative drawn-down of inventories over six consecutive years has created a structurally tighter market than at any point in the last decade.
Silver industrial demand is diversified across solar photovoltaic manufacturing (the largest industrial segment), electronics, automotive, and brazing alloys. Solar demand alone has grown at double-digit rates annually, driven by global renewable energy installation targets and the silver-intensive nature of photovoltaic cell production.