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$100 silver price target; Keith Neumeyer challenges market surplus data
Silver is a strategic metal, and with mounting industrial demand it’s only a matter of time before previous all-time highs are met, and then a new push to triple digits is on the way, said Keith Neumeyer, CEO of First Majestic Silver.
“Silver is the only commodity that is not reaching its [historic] highs, and it has reached [those highs] on two separate occasions, back in 1980 and 2011. I think we’re going to see that high breached in the cycle, and when it does, it’s going to wake up the market. Once it breaks through the $50 level, I think that it’s going to get up to the $100 level pretty quickly,” Neumeyer told David Lin, anchor for Kitco News.
On the data released by the Silver Institute that reported that 2020 saw the biggest surplus in the silver market on record, Neumeyer challenged the collection methodology.
“I think these numbers are made up,” he said. “I wouldn’t trust them at all.”
The Silver Institute reported a net positive balance of 80 million ounces in 2020, the highest surplus ever recorded, but once you subtract the 331 million ounces of net investments in exchange-traded products (ETPs), the balance becomes a negative, or deficit.
Neumeyer further challenged the Silver Institute’s collection methodology on certain line items, like recycling, which is shown as a supply item.
“If you look at recycling, for example, at 182 million ounces, I’m really curious how they come up with that number because most of the recycling actually comes from refineries and smelters and most of them are privately owned and they don’t record. So, finding recycling data is very, very difficult,” he said.
