BullionStar Update: Extreme Demand, Silver Supply, and Market Conditions

We are experiencing extreme demand for physical precious metals at BullionStar. Each day the market is open is breaking new records both in terms of sales revenue and number of orders.

Bullion Center

Despite serving up to nine customers concurrently, the record demand has resulted in extreme queuing times. On several days last week, hundreds of customers were waiting, with queue times reaching up to eight hours and lines extending well outside the building — even with all counters fully staffed and operating. Our management team has been on the ground in the Bullion Center daily, helping to serve customers directly and improve our systems to ensure a good customer experience.

While we continue to accept new orders, we strongly encourage customers in Singapore to select FREE Insured Delivery instead of Personal Collection (Pick-up). All deliveries are fully insured, trackable, and dispatched within two business days (Monday to Friday) after payment is received. We also ship worldwide.

Alternatively, you may store your metals with BullionStar. Your holdings remain under your legal ownership, are fully insured, independently auditable, and can be sold or physically withdrawn at any time.

If you nonetheless choose Personal Collection (Pick-up) of your precious metals at the Bullion Center, please ensure that you have placed your order online ahead of time. We also highly recommend making payment in advance using PayNow or bank transfer to minimise your wait time.

Please also note that, due to the exceptionally high demand, we may stop issuing queue tickets several hours before our 7 pm closing time, as our team is already working extended overtime each day. We recommend arriving by 5 pm to ensure our team has sufficient time to serve you. Please also note that we have temporarily ceased buyback of jewellery products.

Minimum Order Amount of S$5,000

We have temporarily introduced a minimum order amount of S$5,000 (or the equivalent in other currencies). BullionStar has always been a place for everyone — from experienced investors to first-time savers taking their first steps into precious metals.

This decision has not been made lightly. We truly value all customers and purchases, including those beginning to build savings with limited means. However, due to exceptionally high demand, heavy staff overtime, and long waiting times both online and in-store, we need to take this step to maintain service quality. Please know that this measure is temporary, and we are actively working to remove the minimum as soon as operationally possible.

Hiring and Capacity Improvements

To streamline order processing, we strongly recommend placing your order online before visiting the Bullion Center. If you have not placed an order in advance, or would like guidance on what to purchase, our service ambassadors will be happy to welcome you and assist you.

We are actively scaling capacity across the business as quickly as possible. This includes hiring across nearly all departments, such as shop bullion executives, vault operations, customer support, accounting, legal, and compliance.

Apply today if you share our passion for sound money and our commitment to transparency and service.

Silver Inventory Availability

Despite record demand for silver bars in recent weeks, BullionStar continues to have a wide range of silver bars available across multiple weight denominations. All products marked as “In Stock” on our website are available for immediate delivery.

Products listed as “Pre-Sale” reflect secured allocations where silver has already been produced for us or is currently in transit to our facilities. BullionStar does not sell unallocated metal, nor do we offer products that have not been fully sold or allocated to us.

Availability from refineries, mints, and wholesalers currently varies. Some suppliers are able to deliver within approximately six weeks, while others are only accepting orders for delivery in March or later. While we are still able to replenish silver inventory, sourcing metal has become more challenging due to elevated global demand and longer lead times.

For silver coins, the majority of our most popular brands and designs also remain in stock.

Click here to view our current silver inventory.

End of Year Market Update on Silver

Silver closed the year at USD 72.40, delivering a 150% gain in 2025. The silver price reached a new all-time high of USD 83.75 on 29 December before easing slightly in the final trading days of the year.

The repricing began earlier in the year as geopolitical risk, trade policy, and supply-chain security moved to the centre of market thinking. In October, China expanded its export control framework on critical materials, signalling that metals essential to industry and technology may no longer be exported freely.

Silver is a relatively small market where supply cannot respond quickly. Global mine production remains largely flat, recycling is insufficient, and the market has been in structural deficit for several years. At the same time, more than half of global silver demand now comes from industrial use, including solar energy, electrification, electric vehicles, data centres, and advanced electronics. Much of this silver is consumed rather than recycled, permanently removing metal from available supply.

China plays a central role in the global silver ecosystem, refining an estimated 60–70% of the world’s silver. Even modest export licensing, quotas, or administrative delays can tighten physical availability worldwide. As trade policy becomes more restrictive and supply chains less predictable, industrial users, manufacturers, and investors increasingly shift from just-in-time to just-in-case behaviour. This encourages forward buying, inventory building, hedging, and physical accumulation, amplifying price moves in an already tight market. Elevated premiums in Asian markets suggest that this is being driven by real physical demand rather than speculation alone.

Silver’s strength alongside gold, even as equity markets remain elevated, reflects a broader shift in how markets are pricing risk. Precious metals are increasingly being viewed not only as stores of value, but as strategic assets in a world marked by deglobalisation, energy transition, rising debt, and geopolitical fragmentation. Silver sits at the intersection of money and industry, and that dual role is now being reflected in its price.

In this environment, silver is no longer treated as a peripheral precious metal. It is being repriced as a critical industrial input embedded across power generation, technology infrastructure, and long-term supply security. That structural shift helps explain both the scale and the speed of the move, and why physical silver demand has remained strong even at significantly higher prices.