World silver trades concentrate in countries and regions including the United States, Britain, Japan, India, Italy, China, Hong Kong and mainland China. London is the global center for silver trade, while New York is the global center for silver trading. London is home to the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), the world's largest market for silver spot trading, while COMEX, one of the most important markets for gold and silver trading, is based in New York.

Europe is one of the world's regions that suffer the most from silver supply shortage, and that is because European countries are relative small in the production of both mined and recycled silver. The LBMA market has facilitated active silver transactions and trades. In addition, the silver jewelery industry is prosperous in European countries such as Italy, generating a large amount of silver demand every year.

At present China is the world's largest silver-producing country. Because deregulation in China’s silver market came quite late and the market has just taken root, China has been one of the world’s main silver exporters for many years.