Realcent.org

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Now, a spike in so-called lease rates in London this week signals that an increasingly frenetic global hunt for bullion is under way as major dealers seek to shift metal to the US before any tariffs are imposed.

Lease rates reflect the return that holders of bullion in London’s vaults can get by loaning their metal out to other buyers on a short-term basis. Normally, the returns on offer sit close to zero, but this week they’ve surged to historic levels, with profits on one-month lease rates exceeding 3.5% on an annualized basis.

That’s the highest level since at least 2002, and it signals surging demand for metal in London’s vaults. There have been similarly extreme moves in the silver market, and some analysts and traders warn that there may not be enough freely available metal to meet dealers’ needs.
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Cu Penny Hoarder wrote:How many times have we heard the "shortage" BS story over and over again?

If there were a TRUE shortage PM prices would be going sky high with all the speculators jumping in.

Even when there is a real shortage (very rare), it always gets settled somehow or corrects itself in about 1-2 months, then back to business as usual.

GS ASSIGNS 10% PROBABILITY TO 10% EFFECTIVE TARIFF ON #GOLD BEING INTRODUCED WITHIN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS. MARKET IS PRICING LOWER PROBABILITY-JUST ABOVE 10%-OF A 10% US TARIFF ON GOLD.
-based on efp changes vs actual price differential if it happened.

If they tariff gold that would be very price disruptive. Higher.
@profitsplusid

Silver is much higher
@ArcadiaEconomic

Lemon Thrower wrote:and premiums are not moving so this is just propaganda about the so-called physical market in London that is never settled with physical.

London bullion market players are racing to borrow gold from central banks, which store bullion in London, following a surge in gold deliveries to the United States on speculation of potential import tariffs there, two sources familiar with the matter said.

The minimum waiting time to load gold out of the Bank of England, which stores gold for central banks, has reached four weeks, one of the sources said. In normal times, the release time is a few days or a week.

The BoE declined to comment when asked about the queue.
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"The key with the BoE is that they are not a commercial vault so not prepared to handle the onslaught of gold borrowing banks are requesting from the central banks," said Robert Gottlieb, an industry expert and former head of precious metals at Koch Supply and Trading.

The size of so-called Loco London free float, the amount of gold readily available to the London OTC market stored in London, has fallen after the jump in supplies to New York.
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68Camaro wrote:This is another case of a "shortage" not being so much of an actual shortage as a possible case of a central bank claiming they have X amount of gold reserves when they either don't.

The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) said on Thursday it is liaising with CME Group and US authorities on the significant premium of COMEX gold to the London market.
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Silver: Bank says “There are increasing Risks of a Short-Squeeze” in London

ANZ (Australia and New Zealand Banking Group) is one of the largest financial institutions in the Asia-Pacific region, operating in 33 markets with over 180 years of history. As a major player in global financial markets with extensive operations throughout Asia, ANZ has unique insights into both Western and Eastern precious metals demand, particularly in the gold and silver markets.
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ANZ is unique in that they have a foot in both parts of the world. Being linguistically western and geographically eastern, they can provide more timely observations on Asian gold and silver demand.

More importantly, as we shall see here, they are somewhat less constricted in their ability to make frank statements about the supply/demand situation as it pertains to LBMA without sounding like Cassandras. The shortage of silver availability is real. It is persistent and there is likely no help coming for short players without higher prices.

1- Summary/Overview: Transatlantic Dislocation

On March 18th, ANZ Bank published their periodic Precious Metals report. This particular one seemed far from routine and made a point of focusing on Silver. It specifically emphasized physical market stress, supply dislocations, and investment demand in its analysis.
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68Camaro wrote:But I'm struggling to understand how buying PLSV forces Sprott to do anything. They already own the silver in the fund and afaik they haven't announced a new expansion of the offering (new shares). It's not like SLV.