Silver prices spiked to $56.72 per ounce on 28 November after a ten-hour halt in Comex trading, caused by a cooling system failure at a CyrusOne data centre that temporarily shut down CME operations.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) confirmed that trading was halted at 2:44am on Friday after a technical failure at one of its data centres. The exchange attributed the disruption to a cooling system issue at a CyrusOne facility.
“Due to a cooling issue at CyrusOne data centres, our markets are currently halted,” CME said in a statement. “Support is working to resolve the issue in the near term and will advise clients of pre-open details as soon as they are available.”
During the blackout, price discovery shifted entirely to physical markets, with Shanghai futures jumping to record levels. When New York trading resumed, silver opened sharply higher, posting a 5.53% gain in a single session.
The move underscored mounting structural pressures in the global silver market rather than any short-term squeeze. Since 2021, global consumption has exceeded primary supply by an estimated 820 million ounces—equivalent to an entire year of worldwide mine production. The deficit for 2025 alone is projected at 95 million ounces, marking the fifth consecutive annual shortfall.
One of the market’s core constraints is that roughly 70% of global silver output is produced as a byproduct of copper, lead and zinc mining. As a result, higher silver prices do not directly incentivise increased supply. Global mine production peaked in 2016 at around 900 million ounces and has failed to return to those levels.
Policy developments have added further strain. Three weeks ago, the US government designated silver a critical mineral for the first time, aligning it with materials that have historically prompted strategic stockpiling. The United States imports roughly 64% of the silver it consumes, while Mexico—its largest supplier—accounts for a quarter of global production. The designation also activates Section 232 trade-review authorities, raising the prospect of future tariffs.
Since October, approximately 75 million ounces of silver have flowed into CME-registered vaults, with little evidence of metal leaving. Market participants view the inflows as precautionary stockpiling ahead of potential trade actions. Inventories in both London and Shanghai remain historically tight.
Silver has gained 95% year-to-date, outpacing gold’s 58% rise. The gold-silver ratio stands near 75, compared with a long-run average closer to 60—implying a silver price above $70 under historical norms. Silver’s 1980 peak, adjusted for inflation, would be above $190 per ounce.
The events of 28 November offered a rare glimpse of price formation driven solely by physical demand, free from the influence of paper-based derivatives. For many in the market, it reinforced a broader conclusion: the era of abundant, low-priced silver has come to an end, and the underlying fundamentals are now asserting themselves.
