ed steer asks if china can no longer export silver to india, due to lower zinc by-product production:

In silver news, here's something from John Reade over at UBS yesterday. "We have noted recently that Indian demand of good delivery silver from European banks has increased sharply and have wondered why this was the case. We have not seen much in the way of Indian demand for silver for about five years and had heard from the trade that India was sourcing its silver from China via the export of non-good delivery bars. One client in New York suggested to me that China had turned a net importer and (today's) Bloomberg story appears to support this, although we are having difficulties reconciling the numbers. [I've seen these numbers, and I agree with John – Ed].

If China has turned a net importer of silver after years of heavy exports - perhaps due to lower zinc smelter production and as a consequence of export taxes on silver - then the silver market may see yet another change. Over the past decade the sharpest changes in commodity price performance have been seen when China turns from net exporter to importer, or vice versa. This move may lead to silver outperforming gold over the next few months, reversing a period of dreadful relative performance and could see the gold:silver ratio down to 60 from recent levels above 83."

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