600 Tons Silver Vault Highlights Growth In Silver Demand

Silver Bullion Pte, a Singapore supplier of coins and bars to retail investors, opens a 600 metric ton vault tomorrow as investor demand increases.

The storage could hold silver worth $390 million at prices on March 21. The company doubled sales to 1.04 million ounces in 2013 from 517,000 ounces a year earlier, said Gregor Gregersen, who founded the company in 2009. Almost all the sales were silver, he said in an interview in Singapore on March 18.

Investors are adding to holdings as silver becomes cheaper relative to gold. Silver plunged 36 percent in 2013, the most in three decades, exceeding a 28 percent decline in gold as equities climbed, the U.S. economy improved and inflation remained muted. Assets in exchange-traded products backed by silver rose 1.9 percent in 2014, climbing for a third year, as gold holdings were little changed. American citizens are his largest group of customers, said Gregersen.

“While prices dropped last year, we saw physical demand went through the roof,” said Gregersen. “Our American customers seem to be concerned about rising government debt in their country and see silver as a form of insurance.” Marketable U.S. government debt outstanding has soared to a record $12 trillion from $4.5 trillion in 2007, according to U.S. Treasury data compiled by Bloomberg.

Bloomberg

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