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Chinese Gold Imports Soar To Monthly Record On Insatiable Demand
In what must be an inexplicable move to momentum-chasers everywhere, as gold continued to decline in price in March, and long before its targeted smash in April, China was not backing off its gold purchases of the yellow product. Quite the contrary: as export data released by the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department overnight showed, Chinese gold imports in March exploded to an all time record high of 223.5 tons. This follows 97.1 tons in February, and brings the total imports for the first quarter of 2013, or 372 tons, on par with what China imported in the entire first half. It also means that since January 2012, China has imported an absolutely stunning 1,206 tons of gold. Putting this number in context, this is 20% more than the entire reporter official gold holdings of 1054 tons, and represents roughly half of the total 2500 tons of gold mined every year (a number which is set to decline as gold miners find current prices unsustainable and are forced to shut down production).
Comparison of Chinese gold imports: 2012 vs 2013:
And sequential change in Chinese gold imports since January 2012 or when the gold fever in China was truly unleashed:
The latest official Chinese holdings:
And if March was a record month for China, we can't wait for April when prices plunged and when physical buyers, who unlike paper momentum chasers buy more then lower the price falls will see the recent take down as a buying opportunity (if they can find physical of course). From Reuters:
Chinese gold imports are likely to swell further after more than doubling to an all time high in March as retail consumers pounced when prices plunged to a two-year low last month.
"Physical demand picked up significantly over the last couple of weeks. Consumers and industrial users tend to see price drops as buying opportunities," Zhang Bingnan, secretary-general of the China Gold Association, told Reuters.
"Investment demand should continue to stay strong through the rest of the year because of limited investment alternatives," said Zhang, adding that gold sales and processing volumes both spiked in April.
"April imports will be stronger than March," said Ronald Leung, chief dealer at Lee Cheong Gold Dealers in Hong Kong. "The world was buying gold and China was no different at all."
And therein lies the rub: because if China fails to mask the ongoing soaring hot money inflows as reported earlier, and which amounted to over $180 billion in q1 as reported earlier, just watch as Chinese demand for physical goes truly off the charts.
The rest of the story is well known but here it is from Reuters:
In March, Shanghai gold futures fetched premiums of more than $30 to global prices, making it cheaper to buy the metal overseas.
April could see imports swell further after the drop in international prices spurred frenzied buying in Asia, leading to a shortage of gold bars and coins in Singapore as well as Hong Kong, which is China's main source for gold imports.
The drop in prices has prompted a gold rush in China, with Chinese shoppers flocking to retailers to buy jewellery and bars.
A spokesman for Hong Kong jewellery chain Chow Tai Fook, the world's largest jewellery retailer by market value, told Reuters that traffic at its China stores jumped by 50 percent during the May Day holidays.
The surge in Chinese travellers during the three-day May Day holiday also drove gold sales in Hong Kong to rise by an estimated 50 percent, with total gold sales from April 29-May 2 reaching some 40 tonnes, local media quoted Haywood Cheung, president of the Hong Kong Gold and Silver Exchange, as saying.
The jump in Chinese physical demand also prompted some banks to ship in more supplies from London and Swiss vaults, traders said.
What about New York vaults? And specifically the biggest gold vault in the world, located 90 feet below 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza?
Or is there maybe a correlation between the record drawdown in JPM's commercial holdings and the record break out of Chinese gold fever? We hope to find out soon.
As for the increasingly irrelevant spot price of gold paper derivatives, we can only hope "experts" like Paulson et al can continue their liquidation of gold ETF "holdings" for as long as possible: after all one can buy far more gold more when the price is lower, not higher.
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And it is gone forever.
I look at that 8.133 tons for the US and think there's no fucking way. I'm picturing a bunch of IOU's a-la Dumb & Dumber.
We only mine 250 tons a year. That is one banker sell order. So, I am pretty sure there is not 8000 tons under US control.
'Our Pets heads are fallin off!!!!"
I bet when the SHTF, just like the subprime mortgage back security and MF Global fiasco, nobody can figure out who really own the mortgages or the gold.
the gold bubble moves to china?
HOW CAN GOLD BE IN A BUBBLE? STUPID! PAPER IS WORTH ANYTHING???
Can't stop myself from laughing outloud when I see a .........
"World Official Gold Holdings" list and see the USA at the top of the list.
Too fucking funny.
In 5 years, the gold miners will be renamed "banks" as they will be the only ones capable of printing real currency.
stateside
Shrewd observation.
It is the only sane way to save.
Expect bigger numbers. More to come.
The US, England and Japan all want Gold to go down as they need to print $200 billion a month in paper.
China and India are buying it all ?
Interesting news. The other useful bit of PM info is that there appears to be a Sideways market, with retail supplies back to almost normal levels.
Most are waiting for an up or down move, before buying more. If you think about it more than superficially, it says plenty. One of the things it tells me, is that most people do not treat it as a timeless store of value (that is now much more affordable to buy), but that they treat it as a commodity.
Having bought enough (too damn much, thanks to ZH and its 'geniuses'), I'll sit this one out, unless it drops another $100-200. Would rather put excess cash into other things. Sorry, Sprott and your kind.
A question for everyone: do miners take the paper/comex gold price when selling their physical or do they run something like an auction among their clients?
interesting question - food for thought!
on a side comment, i would say there is a huge misinfo campaign on nationalization of miners. i do not believe it for a second. if the people who own the shares of the mining companies are the big and the powerful none will dare to nationalize the mines ... WHY? to give it to the little people? give me a break ...yes, it might make sense because of the importance etc. but when was the last time anything was done on the interest of the litle people? just watch who owns the shares and follow the money -
my two cents is that the same people who have sold PM, have sold naked short the miners running them to the ground basically, so they can get the shares even cheaper. once PM explodes there is nowhere to hide ... naked shorts will be blown out of the water. just dont play margins and you are fine. buy and dont even look at it...
Now you sound like a PM mining exec, who might be trying to keep up the stock price, his bonuses and his job.
"Nationalizing" is the false label they and the ever useless MSM will use when the CB's take them over. The deaf, dumb, blind and mute masses will accept this disinformation, like they always have and will. Only an insignificant minority won't.
People need to stick to time-proven strategies of Diversification in their Asset Allocation. Anyone who advises you to own more than 20% of your assets in PM is either an idiot, a fool or a salesman/shill. Even Jim Rogers and Jim Rickards won't hold more than this (on average), or advise you to go all in.
Please. People who matter who own mining stocks will get tipped off when the time is right.
Oh for sure, and a huge crash in the share price will just leave investors oblivious: "huh?"
You buy at the lows, and days later the company is nationalized. And you think there wouldn't be a thousand court cases? Because that would be VERY strong implication that some people had foreknowledge...
It's easy to see where this is heading.
The endgame is a contest for global supremacy between the Western Petro-Dollar and Eastern Gold. Will probably require a MAJOR war to finally resolve.
Is this why the Chinese trade figures look so high?
If we can order iphones from a country which hates gold, then the problem solved.
Too many people still like gold, just read the many blogs about gold who have been bullish ever since gold hit 1900. Until these people give up, gold will keep going down.
Also, lets wait until the Asians start puking gold up after they see their real estate investments (rofl....) collapse and they have to sell it to eat. Watch the dollar get nice and strong while this is happening.
Bullish ever since gold hit $1900? Who got bullish when gold hit $1900?
Lots of people got bullish in 2009 when it became obvious the route Central Banks would take, when gold went from about $750 to $1200.
Seriously, if your first gold purchase was between $1750 and $1900 you need to put your hand up, and your helmet on.
Law of the Gold Rush:
In every "gold rush" (real or figurative), there are more people getting rich on selling picks & shovels (goldrush products & service), than on the actual "gold".
Note, and note well:
The Doom, Gloom and Boom segment of the economy has its share of stores and salesman, who are happy to help out people with money to spend. This is especially true for ZH readers. So I go into this with eyes wide open, and a sceptical and scientific mind, that is less likely to get bamboozled by slick snake oil salesmen.
Gold is money. If someone spends more gold than they find looking for gold, it is still money. Your analysis does not relate to gold. It relates to the business of finding gold. I think you need to reread your post until you understand what that quote actually means.
last time i check you can't read ZH OR Max K from china " it's called the great chinese firewall " and chinese are not doom and gllomers, their realist and know GOLD = WEATH . unlike fools like yourself..
Gold lost many battles,but never lost a war.
"China Gold Imports from Hong Kong" Central Bank or citizens???
"Official Gold Holdings" is central bank
does one have to do with another?