Silver imports in Ahmedabad, which have been close to negligible for the past several months, went up sharply to multi-year high in the month of February, official figures show.
GSECL, which handles cargo at the city's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport said 102 metric tonne was imported at the airport in February 2018, an increase of 2873% over import of 3.55 tonne in the same month of last year.
Import of the shiny metal in February was 600 times or 60,000% higher than in the previous month, when the import was a meagre 0.17 tonne.
Incidentally, silver import for February 2018 was the highest in the last 37 months – higher in every month since December 2014 when its import stood at just a touch below 167 tonne, according to GSECL data.
Further, the February import figure of 102 tonne was almost the same as the first ten months of the ongoing financial year (cumulative 117 tonne), and almost three times the import in the whole of last financial year (36 tonne).
Jewellers said the surge in silver imports is mainly due to increased demand from industries, and only slightly because of higher retail demand.
"Use of silver in electronics and other industries has gone up, which is why demand has shot up. Also, more people are now buying silver jewellery, vessels or articles for gifting purposes, especially during the marriage season, which has also led to higher imports," Jigar Soni, vice-president of Jewellers Association, Ahmedabad, said.
