Silver bars are stacked in a safe deposit box at the Pro Aurum Goldhaus in Munich, Germany, on January 10, 2025.
Angelica Warmsreuter
BEIJING — China plans to tighten external regulations silver The export ban will begin Thursday, expanding restrictions on the once common metal that is vital to U.S. industrial and defense supply chains.
tesla CEO Elon Musk criticized the move over the weekend in response to a post on his social media platform X about the upcoming restrictions.
“This is bad. Silver is needed in many industrial processes,” Musk wrote.
However, this rule is not new. China’s Ministry of Commerce first announced new measures to tighten oversight of rare metals on the same day that U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in South Korea in October. At the time, the Chinese government agreed to suspend certain rare earth export controls for one year, while the United States lifted tariffs.
Earlier this month, China announced a list of 44 companies approved to export silver under the new measures in 2026 and 2027. New regulations in 2026 will also limit exports of tungsten and antimony, materials that are dominated by China’s supply chain and widely used in defense and advanced technology.
Although China has not explicitly announced a total ban on silver exports, the state-run Securities Times on Tuesday cited unnamed industry sources as saying the new policy formally elevates silver from a commodity to a strategic commodity and places export controls on the same regulatory basis as rare earths.
In a flash survey of its members conducted in November, the EU Chamber of Commerce in China found that the majority of respondents were or expected to be affected by China’s export restrictions.
In November, the United States added silver to its list of nationally designated critical minerals, citing its use in electrical circuits, batteries, solar cells and antibacterial medical devices. Another US analysis predicts that China will become one of the world’s largest producers of silver by 2024, as well as the country with the largest reserves.
China exported more than 4,600 tonnes of silver in the first 11 months of this year, much more than the roughly 220 tonnes it imported in the same period, Wind Information reported, citing official figures.
The restrictions on silver come at a time when interest in the metal has increased in recent weeks.
Two Chinese companies approached Canada-based Kuya Silver on Friday and offered to buy physical silver for about $8 more than the market price at the time, CEO David Stein confirmed to CNBC. One company is a manufacturer and the other is a major trading company.
He added that on Monday, an Indian buyer approached Kuya with an offer of $10 above the market price.
Free Press, a conservative digital outlet, on Tuesday published a column by George Mason University economics professor Tyler Cowen, who said the soaring prices of silver and gold reflect investors moving away from the U.S. dollar.
He called the price hike “a warning for the (U.S.) economy.”
of us dollar index It fell nearly 9.5% in 2025, its worst performance since 2017.
By contrast, the price of silver has more than doubled, marking its best year since 1979, when the metal soared nearly 470%. After hitting a record high of more than $80 an ounce earlier in the week, silver prices fell on Wednesday, with spot prices trading around $73 an ounce.
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Gold is up more than 60% so far this year, also its fastest pace since 1979.
BitcoinGold, which is sometimes touted as an alternative to gold as a store of value, was trading at nearly $88,000 on Wednesday morning Beijing time, down more than 5% for the year.
—CNBC’s Chris Hayes contributed to this report.
