China's gold imports via Hong Kong in April fell short of its exports for the first time since at least 2011, as measures to contain the spread of coronavirus hammered demand in the top consumer.
Net imports in April crashed by about 176 percent to minus 10.3 tonnes versus the previous month, data from the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department showed on Monday. The drop came after net gold imports nearly trebled to 13.523 tonnes in March.
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"China's gold price was trading at too big a discount compared to the overseas price, so gold imports fell a lot because supply inside the country is abundant already," Samson Li, a Hong Kong-based precious metals analyst at Refinitiv GFMS, said.
Dealers in China, which is a top global consumer, sold gold at discounts of up to $50 to $70 an ounce ($1.61 to $2.25 a gramme) versus benchmark spot prices last month, the most on record according to data going back to 2014.
"At the same time, gold flowed out from mainland China to Hong Kong, thus it turned from net imports to net exports in April, the first time since 2011," Li said.
Exports to Hong Kong stood at 14.513 tonnes, compared with 0.685 tonnes reported for March.
China's total gold imports via Hong Kong plunged more than 70 percent to 4.213 tonnes from 14.208 tonnes in March.
The fall in shipments followed a slide in demand for the precious metal as the country battled the coronavirus pandemic. Beijing dropped its annual growth target for the first time on Friday.
The Hong Kong data may not provide a complete picture of Chinese purchases as gold is also imported via Shanghai and Beijing.
SOURCE: Reuters news agency
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May 26, 2020 at 12:31AM
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Gold prices in China fall as net imports from Hong Kong drop - Aljazeera.com
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