China Acquired 2000 Tonnes of Gold In 2013, Almost Double World Gold Council Estimates

Dornbusch's Law:   The crisis takes a much longer time coming than you think, and then it happens much faster than you would have thought.

Dr. Rudi Dornbusch

The lack of intelligent coverage by the media for this sea change in global asset allocations is remarkable.

Koos Jansen has been doing some terrific work in this area.

I have some suspicions about where the gold bullion that is leaving the Western funds and ETFs is going.

Gold is moving steadily from West to East. When the reckoning comes, it may be terrific.

SGE Chairman: 2013 Chinese Gold Demand Was 2000 tonnes

By Koos Jansen

Published: 10-10-2014 18:23

This is the final blow for the ones who still couldn’t comprehend, after all evidence presented, the amount of Chinese non-government gold demand in 2013.   At the LBMA forum in Singapore June 25, 2014, one of the keynote speakers was chairman of the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) Xu Luode. In his speech he made a few very candid statements about Chinese consumer gold demand, that according to Xu reached 2,000 tonnes in 2013. In contrast to the Word Gold Council (WGC) that states Chinese gold demand was 1,066 tonnes in 2013. Xu's speech has now finally been translated and published in the LBMA magazine The Alchemist #75.

Xu's statements once again confirm what I have been writing for months. SGE withdrawals equal Chinese wholesale demand:

import + mine + scrap = total supply = SGE withdrawals = wholesale demand

Let's go through a couple of quotes from Xu:

Data on China’s gold imports has not previously been made available to the public. However, gold has historically been imported through Hong Kong, and Hong Kong is highly transparent, disclosing details such as the number of tonnes of gold imported on a monthly basis. Last year, China imported 1,540 tonnes of gold. Such imports, together with the 430 tonnes of gold we produced ourselves, means that we have, in effect, supplied approximately 2,000 tonnes of gold last year. 

The 2,000 tonnes of gold were consumed by consumers in China. Of course, we all know that the Chinese ‘dama’ [middle-aged women] accounts for a significant proportion in purchasing gold. So last year, our gold exchange’s inventory reduced by nearly 2,200 tonnes, of which 200 tonnes was recycled gold. 

Again, we can read the simplified equation (for 2013):

import (1540t) + mine (428t) + scrap (229t) = SGE withdrawals (2197t)

I recommend that you read the entire article here.