Hong Kong-to-China gold flow hits record high in 2012

Hong Kong’s net gold flow to mainland China jumped 47 per cent last year to a record high of 557.478 tonnes, indicating robust demand in China, which vies with India to be the world’s top gold consumer.

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Shoppers buy gold jewellery at a Spring Festival fair in Jinan city, Shandong province. Photo: EPA

Published: 11:41pm, 5 Feb 2013

Hong Kong’s net gold flow to mainland China jumped 47 per cent last year to a record high of 557.478 tonnes, indicating robust demand in China, which vies with India to be the world’s top gold consumer.

Hong Kong shipped 114.372 tonnes of gold to China in December, also a record high for monthly exports. The city received 19.644 tonnes of gold from the mainland in that month.

Its total gold shipments to China last year jumped 94 per cent from the 2011 total to over 832 tonnes, but imports also were six times higher at 274.684 tonnes, data from the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department showed on Tuesday. (www.censtatd.gov.hk)

“It is not a surprise,” said Dan Smith, head of metals research at Standard Chartered. “Consumer and investment appetite was quite strong, and no one knows how much the central bank is buying.”

Investors are waiting for a research report from the World Gold Council due next week, which will show whether China overtook India last year as the world’s top gold consumer.

“This is a very strong number,” said Nick Trevethan, senior commodity strategist at ANZ in Singapore. “China’s implied gold demand looks set to approach or exceed 1,000 tonnes based on Hong Kong trade data and the annualised gold production number.”