A Chinese survey of purchasing managers pointed to a modest recovery in October. Refined Copper imports increased by 17% for the month and 7% year-on-year as a combination of improved sentiment and a pickup in financing activity drove increased buying. There was a shocking increase in refined Zinc imports, to the highest level seen since May 2009 at 73,000 tons. Silver demand in China, the world’s second-largest user, may jump as much as 10% next year to a record as investors look to preserve wealth & consumption may climb to as much as 7,700 metric tons. About 33% of the country’s demand comes from jewelry and coins, with the rest from industrial use in photography, solar and electrical appliances. A recovery in the solar industry may add to Silver Demand. The government is targeting 21 Giga-watts of solar-power installations by 2015 after installing 2.6 Giga-watts in 2011, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Chinese investors are buying more silver as the second- largest economy slowed for a seventh quarter. Chinese investors want hard assets such as silver, especially when it’s cheaper than gold and requires less funding. Many producers and investors have hoarded the precious metal in the form of ingots or un-wrought Silver. Silver rose 53% in the Federal Reserve’s first round of quantitative easing, or QE, from December 2008 through March 2010, twice as much as gold, and 24% during the second phase ending in June 2011, three times as much.
