Industrial Silver Demand Falls 3% as Solar Thrifting Bites
Global – October 31, 2026 -- Industrial fabrication consumed 657.4 million ounces of silver in 2025, down 3% from the 2024 record of 680.5 million ounces, according to the World Silver Survey 2026. Metals Focus forecasts a further decline of roughly 3% in 2026, to 639.6 million ounces.
Industrial use remains the largest broad component of silver demand. It accounted for well over half of the approximately 1.13 billion ounces of total demand in 2025, so shifts in industrial consumption can alter the wider supply-demand balance.
Solar thrifting drives the decline as installations keep growing
Photovoltaic demand reached a record 197.6 million ounces in 2024, about 29% of industrial silver demand, up from roughly 11% a decade earlier. The World Silver Survey 2026 attributes much of the 2025 reversal to changing silver use within solar manufacturing, not to weakness in electrification or electronics.