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Mix-Ansicht- Was zu Silber - R.Deutsch, 08.05.2001, 22:29
Was zu Silber
von gholzbauer 08.05.01 17:27:38 3477617
http://cnniw.yellowbrix.com/pages/c...y=Metals+%26+Minerals%3APrecious
Dull silver takes on a new gleam
Source: Sarasota Herald Tribune
Publication date: 2001-05-06
Arrival time: 2001-05-07
So you`ve been hammered in high-tech and battered by blue chips. Perhaps it`s time to buy into what used to be real money --
silver.
Champions of the cheapest precious metal are rubbing their hands in anticipation of two new trends that marry silver`s most
ancient use with one so modern that most people haven`t heard of it.
The United States, having depleted its silver reserves, is about to do something it hasn`t done since the early 1960s: Buy silver
on the open market so the mint can keep striking coins.
At the same time, a new industry is hustling for its own supply of argent. It needs silver, one of the best metals for conducting
electricity, to produce new superconductor wires that carry 140 times the current of copper wire. The amount the industry needs
would be better measured in tons than ounces.
Wall Street is not paying attention, but the silver bulls are. They say the metal -- in the basement at $4.40 an ounce -- is
screaming to become a hot commodity.
"The fact that there are so few valid plays in silver companies makes us believe that when the silver bull market starts, there will
be a rush into the metal for sure," said Claude Cormier of Ormetal Inc., a mining stock advisory firm in Toronto."They will reach
premiums never seen.
"It will be, in terms of performance, probably better than the dot- coms we have seen of a few years ago."
Does all this make any difference to a shell-shocked investor who has discovered that tech stocks do not always go up?
American Eagles
The government stopped using silver in regular coins in 1965. Twenty years later, Congress asked the mint to begin making silver
commemorative coins dubbed"American Eagles."
To avoid shaking up the silver market, Congress mandated the mint use the last of the Defense Department`s stockpile.
You would think the government would be readily able to supply figures on these multimillion-dollar inventories, but neither the
mint nor Defense Department was in a mood to be pinned down.
"The remaining amount of inventory has already been transferred to the U.S. Mint for consumption," said Peter Mory, director of
planning and market research for the Defense National Stockpile Center, which is part of the Defense Logistics Agency.
He was not sure whether the final transfer involved 11 million ounces or 15 million ounces.
A decade ago, the Defense Department controlled 72 million ounces of silver, which gives a rough idea of how fast the mint is
using it up.
Spokesman Michael White said the mint now has 30 million ounces of silver, an amount that would take three years to use up at
the present rate of 10 million ounces a year.
With the mint scheduled to run out of silver by the end of 2003, the agency is understandably cagey about saying just when it
will begin to buy -- an event that could jack up prices.
"I think they are thinking about something like midyear," White said, after repeated requests for a more specific time frame.
Later, White said he meant that the mint`s silver buyers would be coming up with a plan by mid-year, not actually buying then.
"They`re running out, whether they run out this year or the year following," said David Morgan, who tracks the metal on his Web
site, Silver-Investor.com.
"At one time the government had 4 billion ounces," he said."The cupboard is bare. Instead of being a net supplier, they will be
net user."
While silver bulls like Morgan are excited about the prospect of the mint buying on the open market, mainstream bullion dealers
are more blase.
"In the next few years, we are likely to see silver languish in the sub-five-dollar dollar range," said Michael B. Clark, managing
partner in FideliTrade Inc., a Delaware company that trades precious metals and also runs a Comex-approved silver warehouse.
"I`m sort of parroting what a lot of people in our industry tend to believe, I think," Clark added.
Superconductors
While the mint`s silver needs may sound huge, they are not, when compared with the 850 million ounces the world consumes
each year. Photographic film accounts for much of that. Small amounts of silver also are used in many electronic devices, from
microwave ovens to computers.
But there is one new use -- one about as high-tech as it gets -- that could require a mammoth amount of silver. American
Superconductor, which sold its shares to the public, is building a superconductor wire factory in Massachusetts. John Howe, the
company`s vice president of industry affairs, said the plant will initially produce about 6 miles of wire each year.
Like officials at the mint, Howe is cagey when asked how much silver that will require."We have an idea of what our consumption
requirements will be," was his cryptic response. The company is working on a second-generation superconductor wire, he
hastened to add, that"would virtually eliminate our silver requirement. So this is not a permanent year-to-year silver
consumption."
How high is up?
Does all this make any difference to a shell-shocked investor who has discovered that tech stocks do not always go up?
The mint`s entry into the marketplace alone"could have a dramatic effect on prices," said Ted Butler, a commodities analyst
based in Jupiter, on Florida`s east coast.
He also disputes the Mint`s statement that it now owns 30 million ounces of silver.
"I put it a lot lower than that, 10 million max," said Butler.
And he wonders how much of the silver the Mint owns is coin silver which would require further refining to convert it to the.999
pure silver required for American Eagle coins.
Even though the mint`s need -- 1 percent of the total market -- is not staggering,"it is always the last ounce that is going to set
the price," Butler said.
Butler is on record as expecting a big payoff from silver -- a 10- or 20-fold increase to $50 or $100 per ounce.
But Cormier, the mining stock analyst in Toronto, cautions against expecting silver to go to the moon.
"I`m not dreaming of $50 silver," he said."I will be extremely happy if we get seven to 10 bucks.
"Because $10 silver is a recipe for a 500 percent increase in the stocks of many silver producers."
Publication date: 2001-05-06
© 2001, YellowBrix, Inc.
von Basic 08.05.01 18:48:44 3478400
Supraleitung mit Silber
In der FAZ stand diese Woche ein Artikel ĂĽber Siemens.
Danch hat Siemens ein Supraleitfähiges Kabel für die Industriefertigung entwickelt.
Die für die Supraleitung verwendete spröde Keramik wird dazu in Silberröhrchen gefüllt. Die Röhrchen werden dann in Längen bis
zu 400m mehrlagig verseielt. Die Keramik erhält so ein gewisses Maß an flexibiltät und kann sogar zu Spulen gewickelt werden.
Das Supraleitergeschäft wird in diesem Jahrzehnt Milliardengröße annehmen.
Basic
von golden-bear 08.05.01 19:00:58 3478519
Das mit der Supraleitung bei Siemens stand schon vor 1-2 Wochen in der Wirtschaftswoche
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