Gold Market Charts – A Month in Review
By BullionStar
BullionStar has recently started a new series of posts highlighting charts relating to some of the most important gold markets, gold exchanges and gold trends around the world. The posts include charts of the Chinese Gold Market, the flow of gold from West to East via the London and Swiss gold markets, and the holdings of gold-backed Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). This is the second post in the series. Please see the November 2016 chart post article for background about the charts chosen for this series.
All of the charts featured below originate from the excellent GOLD CHARTS R US website run by Nick Laird. For BullionStar's customizable gold and silver price charts, go to BullionStar Charts where, for example, you can measure a wide variety of financial assets in terms of gold and other precious metals.
Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) – Gold Withdrawals
Total physical gold withdrawals from the SGE in November 2016 reached a substantial 214.7 tonnes, over 40% higher than gold withdrawals from the Exchange during October. November was also the second highest monthly withdrawal total of the year, only surpassed by January's withdrawal numbers. Year-to-date to November, gold withdrawals from the SGE have reached 1,774 tonnes.
As a reminder, gold withdrawals from the Shanghai Gold Exchange are a suitable proxy for Chinese wholesale gold demand because all non-monetary gold imported into China has to be sold on the SGE, and most Chinese gold mining output as well as most Chinese scrap gold is also sold through the SGE as 'standard' gold.
November's strong Chinese gold demand occurred in an environment of falling international gold prices, which is to be expected since Chinese gold buyers generally buy at lower prices ('buy the dips'), and unlike Western buyers, the Chinese do not chase upward gold price momentum.
Shanghai Gold Exchange – Gold Withdrawals (tonnes), 2008 – end November 2016
Chinese and Indian Gold Demand
A suitable proxy of Chinese and Indian gold demand can be constructed by adding Shanghai Gold Exchange withdrawals to Indian gold imports. Gold import figures into India are an acceptable proxy for Indian gold demand since Indian domestic gold mining is virtually non-existent.
On a combined basis, CHINDIA gold demand for October 2016 totalled 225 tonnes, which incredibly, pushed the cumulative gold demand from these two major gold markets above the 20,000 tonne mark for the nine-year period 2008 – 2016. Note that this latest version of the CHINDIA chart is to the end of October 2016.
Chinese and Indian gold demand combined (tonnes), 2008 – end October 2016
Russian Gold Reserves
The Bank of Russia, Russia's central bank, is one of the most active buyers of gold on the planet, and has been pursuing a massive physical gold accumulation strategy since the early 2000s. In November 2016, the Bank of Russia added another 1 million ounces of gold (31.1 tonnes) to its gold reserve holdings. This follows a 40 tonne gold purchase by the Bank of Russia in October and makes …read more
Source: Gold Market Charts – A Month in Review
