* Silver hits highest since early 1980
* iShares Silver Trust holdings hit record
* Coming Up: U.S. ICSC chain stores yy Weekly; 1145 GMT (Updates prices, adds quotes)
By Lewa Pardomuan
SINGAPORE, April 5 (Reuters) - Silver jumped to its highest since early 1980 on Tuesday on inflation concerns, a rise in ETF holdings to another record and growing industrial demand, while gold hardly moved as the euro held below this week's five-month high versus the dollar.
In addition to rising investment demand for silver as a cheaper alternative to gold, an expected increase in physical buying from China was likely to support the metal, which gained 22 percent in the first quarter -- its ninth consecutive quarterly increase.
Silver , widely used in electronics manufacturing, rose as high as $38.73 an ounce and was quoted at $38.64 an ounce by 0301 GMT, up 22 cents.
"We do see a lot of demand for silver from China, so we think silver used in solar panels have increased. We think China will have a lot of demand for silver in the medium to long term," said Natalie Robertson, commodities strategist at ANZ in Melbourne.
"With China focusing more on renewable energy, especially after the nuclear crisis in Japan, they will probably be developing a lot more solar panels. Fundamentally, the silver picture looks very strong as well."
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