Silver prices surge as China restricts exports and global inventories drop 70%. Physical supply gaps widen amid rising industrial demand.

China is set to tighten controls on silver exports from Thursday, extending its oversight over a metal that has traditionally been treated as an ordinary commodity but is increasingly viewed as strategically important to global industry and defense supply chains.

China has launched an export control investigation into Meta's $2 billion acquisition of AI startup Manus, which relocated from Beijing to Singapore in 2025.