EDITORIAL & OPINION — FACTS ‘N’ FIGURES — Photo silver a picture of health

Because of its superior quality, convenience and low cost, silver-based photography will continue to edge out digital imaging in use in applications ranging from family snapshots to medical X-rays to motion pictures.

Photography is one of the three pillars of silver fabrication demand, owing to the wide use of silver-based systems. Over the past five years, silver photographic offtake has risen by 10%, and the trend is expected to continue through 2002. Total consumption of silver in photographic applications is expected to increase to 255 million oz. in 2002 from 232 million oz. in 1997.

The amateur photography sector is expecting a 24% increase in film unit volume and a 33% increase in color paper volume during the 1997-2002 period. More than 90% of amateur snapshots are taken with color negative film. Silver-based photography is less expensive and more convenient than digital photography.

Demand for silver in the professional photography sector has slowed as a result of increased demand for hard copy prints made with ink-jet, thermal dye-diffusion and electro-photographic systems. However, equipment has also been developed for providing high-quality prints with low-cost paper. The net result of these competing developments will be slow growth in color negative film and color paper volume, a further decline in black and white paper volume, and a 9.7% decline in silver use in the professional sector to 5.6 million oz. from 6.2 million oz. Together, the professional and amateur photo sectors will require 89.5 million oz. by 2002, up from 80.5 in 1997.

The volume of silver-based X-ray films will increase by about 2.5% per year until 2002. Uses of alternative imaging techniques, such as images rendered on cathode ray monitors, are increasing, and some of these techniques are based on silver-halide or silver-behenite image-forming systems. Although we are seeing an increase in picture archiving and communications systems (whereby images are archived and made available on demand), the quality of non silver-based images is inferior. Demand for the metal in X-ray film in the medical, dental and industrial sectors is expected to increase to 102 million oz. in 2002 from 87.6 million oz. in 1997.

The production of motion pictures requires three types of color film: camera, intermediate and print. Electronic technology, considered the only potential competitor to this system, has failed to make inroads as a result of cost and the poor image-rendering capabilities of digital projectors. It is expected that motion picture films will continue to dominate this industry in the next five years and that the film quantities will increase. Total silver requirements are expected to jump to 14 million oz. per year from 12 million oz.

— The preceding is an excerpt from Silver News, published by the Washington, D.C.-based Silver Institute.