Key Takeaways:
- Rising rates and a more attractive dollar made conditions more difficult for silver during the month of September.
- Despite this, silver offers a plethora of industrial applications, and recent Sprott insights note that the Shanghai silver premium is still elevated.
- The Sprott Silver Miners & Physical Silver ETF (SLVR) offers access to both silver mining companies and physical silver, all within a singular ETF wrapper.
Recent Sprott insights from Paul Wong, CFA, Managing Partner and Market Strategist at Sprott, and Kenny Zhu, CFA, Director, Research & Investment Strategy at Sprott Asset Management, noted how silver bullion did across the month of September. Wong and Zhu pointed out that the price of silver bullion dropped 9.24% between August 31, 2026 and September 30, 2026. However, they noted that silver actually rose by 3.12% across Q3 2026.
Before getting into why the price of silver grew during Q3, understanding what happened in September can be helpful context. Growing rates and a stronger dollar adversely affected silver. Gold had similar issues—Wong and Zhu’s report showed that gold bullion’s price dropped 6.31% during the same month.
However, silver is a metal that offers two distinct portfolio use cases. Some use it as a store of value, and others use it for its wide array of industrial applications.
These industrial use cases are helping to support the precious metal, even if monetary policy works against it. As Wong and Zhu pointed out, the Shanghai silver premium has been elevated largely since 2025’s conclusion. This indicates that demand for silver in the Chinese market remains strong.
Industrial Momentum
The Sprott report added that activity within Chinese factories is improving, and the Chinese PMI grew to 50.1 in September. All of this works in favor of Chinese industries that require a lot of silver, such as artificial intelligence and electronics.
“While considerable uncertainty remains, any sustained easing of rate pressures alongside resilient industrial demand could improve the relative risk/reward dynamic for silver,” Wong and Zhu added.
This dual use case could work in the favor of silver and silver investors alike in the coming months. As the market waits for rates to cool down, silver’s robust industrial demand may keep the metal’s price at a stronger position.
Those who wish to gain exposure to the silver industry may want to give the Sprott Silver Miners & Physical Silver ETF (SLVR) a closer look. SLVR offers investment exposure to both silver miners and physical silver.
Much like silver bullion, SLVR has also seen noticeable growth over Q3 2026. As of September 30, 2026, the fund’s NAV has risen 8.56% across the last three months.
For more news, information, and analysis, visit the Gold/Silver/Critical Minerals Content Hub.
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Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs): SETM, LITP, URNM, URNJ, COPP, COPJ, NIKL, SGDM, SGDJ, SLVR, GBUG, METL, and REXC
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