The country's first specialized silver exchange is set to open in Shanghai today, a move aimed at meeting the demand of the rapidly growing local silver industry.

The Shanghai White Platinum & Silver Exchange (SWPSE), established on the basis of the former Shanghai-based Huatong Nonferrous Metal Wholesale Market, will also become the country's only officially designated silver transaction market, following the establishment of State-level gold and diamond exchanges in the country's financial hub, official sources revealed yesterday at an industry forum.

SWPSE Chief Executive Li Wenfeng said yesterday the new exchange aims to provide "more professional trade services'' and to become a national authoritative information centre for the domestic silver industry.

According to Li, more than 50 domestic institutions and enterprises have been given licences to trade silver via the exchange.

Zhang Tingting, a senior publicity official with SWPSE, told China Daily yesterday that the exchange, "if approved by the central authority,'' will also start trading another kind of precious metal -- platinum -- in the future.

"But currently, we are focusing only on silver trading and we want to be professional,'' said Zhang.

She said an online silver trading platform will also be launched along with the opening of the exchange.

Silver and gold have long been considered special commodities in China and the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, had a monopoly over the purchase and sale of the metals.

But China opened its silver market in 2000 and the Shanghai-based Huatong market was the only designated institution over the past three and a half years for the trading of silver and other metals including aluminium, copper and zinc.

Chen Haoran, chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals and Chemicals Importers and Exporters, said yesterday China's silver production had surged over the past decade, with year-on-year increases of more than 9.5 per cent.

In 2002, China's annual silver production reached 2,220 tons, accounting for 10 per cent of the world's total silver trading volume, ranking it after Mexico, Peru, Australia and the United States.

As the silver supply had exceeded demand in the past, the central government allowed silver to be traded on the open market from January 1, 2000 and encouraged silver exports by offering preferential taxation policies.

During the first half of this year, China's silver exports, mainly to the Asia market, reached 1,720 tons, compared with only 260 tons in 2000, according to statistics from the chamber.

China's detected silver reserves total more than 115,000 tons and rank it sixth in the world.

But China's domestic silver market still has great potential.

Statistics from the Shanghai Jewellery Association show that the sale of domestic silver ornaments accounted for less than 10 per cent of the country's jewellery and ornament market, which reached over 100 billion yuan (US$12 billion) last year.

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