India should boost silver processing and diversify imports: GTRI

Silver is not just a precious metal but a key industrial and energy transition input, and India should focus on processing it by securing long-term overseas mining supplies, boosting domestic refining and recycling, reducing reliance on imported finished silver, and diversifying import sources, GTRI said.

It said China is the world’s dominant processor of silver.

Beijing is importing around USD 5.6 billion of silver ores and concentrates out of a global total of USD 6.3 billion. It refines this metal domestically and exports higher-value silver embedded in electronics, medical devices, and solar panels.

 India, by contrast, imported about USD 6.4 billion of refined silver in 2024, 21.4 per cent of global trade, making it the world’s largest consumer of finished silver rather than a processor.

“India must learn to process silver from the ore stage for domestic value addition,” Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) Founder Ajay Srivastava said.

In FY25, India exported just USD 478.4 million of silver products while importing USD 4.83 billion, underscoring its deep import dependence.

That dependence surged in 2025. Imports jumped to USD 2.7 billion in October alone, up 529 per cent year-on-year, followed by USD 1.1 billion in November, a 126 per cent increase.

Cumulatively, imports reached USD 8.5 billion during January-November 2025 and are estimated at USD 9.2 billion for the full year, about 44 per cent higher than in 2024. During April-October 2025, India imported USD 5.94 billion worth of silver.

“India should recognise silver as a critical industrial and energy-transition metal, not merely a precious commodity, and integrate it into its minerals and clean-energy strategy,” he said.

 He added that this will require securing long-term supply through overseas mining partnerships and encouraging domestic refining and recycling capacity to reduce dependence on imported finished silver, and diversifying import sources beyond a few trading hubs.

“In a fragmenting global order, securing silver is becoming as important as securing energy. India’s policy framework must reflect that shift,” Srivastava said. He also said unlike gold, silver supply chains remain far less transparent — a vulnerability that is becoming strategic as competition intensifies.

Import diversification is important as China has tightened export controls, shifting silver exports to a licence-based system from January 1, 2026.

Under the new rules, only approved firms can export silver, and each shipment requires Government authorisation, replacing the older quota regime.

 While this is not an outright export ban, it has heightened global supply concerns and injected new volatility into prices — especially given China’s central role in silver processing, he said.

With limited new mining capacity and rapidly expanding technological uses, silver is increasingly viewed as a metal tied directly to future industrial and energy dominance.

At present, 55-60 per cent of global silver demand is industrial, driven by electronics, solar power, electric vehicles, defence equipment, and medical technologies.

Further, he said the role of silver in green energy is particularly transformative as it is a critical input in solar photovoltaic cells, where it is used as a conductive paste to improve efficiency.

Solar energy already accounts for roughly 15 per cent of global silver demand, and that the share is rising rapidly as renewable capacity expands.

 In medicine and healthcare, silver’s antibacterial properties are used in wound dressings, medical-device coatings, catheters, surgical instruments, water purification systems, and pharmaceutical compounds.

The metal remains central to jewellery, silverware, and coins, especially in countries like India where cultural demand is deeply embedded.

But its strategic importance now comes overwhelmingly from industry. Silver has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal, making it indispensable for electronics, circuit boards, connectors, batteries, and automotive systems.

Over the past two decades, trade in silver ores and concentrates expanded from just USD 0.1 billion in 2000 to USD 6.27 billion in 2024.

Trade in refined silver has grown even faster. Global commerce in silver bars, ingots, rods, wires, powders, and bullion jumped from USD 4.06 billion in 2000 to USD 31.42 billion in 2024.