Gold exports slow

More than 12 tonnes of gold were exported from Viet Nam in June for a turnover of $630 million, or 8 per cent of the country’s total export over the same period.

June’s gold exports was higher than total export value of the precious metal for the first five months of the year. The market had been tight then as the Government’s policies took effect earlier this year.

Since the Government announced plans to restrict the gold market in February, gold had been traded at levels even lower than global prices in the local market.

The lower prices in the local market offered a golden opportunity for traders to buy the precious metal for export.

GSO figures show that export turnover of gold and gemstones from Viet Nam rose from $86 million in April to $242 million in May and $643 million in June.

These figures bring total gold export volume in the first half of the year to nearly 20 tonnes and their value to $1.027 billion.

But these figures are much lower than in previous years.

Switzerland’s import of gold jewellery from Viet Nam dropped by nearly 96 per cent in one year, from 21 tonnes in May 2010 to just 813 kilogrammes in May of this year, the London-based Financial Times newspaper reported.

Last year Viet Nam shipped nearly 61 tonnes of gold jewellery worth SFr2.6 billion ($2.8 billion) to Switzerland, according to the Swiss Federal Customs Administration.

“But this year discounts in the local gold prices have been far smaller, meaning there is far less incentive to sell gold offshore,” the Financial Times report said.

Deputy chairman of the Viet Nam Gold Traders Association Nguyen Thanh Truc told Viet Nam Television that total export turnover of gold jewellery from Viet Nam in the last two years exceeded $4.5 billion.

Truc said gold export had helped the country narrow the trade deficit.

The trade deficit in the first six months of the year has been estimated at 15.7 per cent of the country’s total export value, lower than the Government’s target of 16 per cent set for the whole year. According to GSO figures, the trade deficit would make up 18.1 per cent if the value of gold exports was excluded during that period.

But gold had also been smuggled into the country when its prices in the local market were higher than in the global market.

Statistics from the World Gold Council, a mining industry lobby group, suggest a net inflow of $2 billion – $3 billion per year, according to Scott Robertson, founding partner of Asia Markets Group, an advisory firm.

“If such an inflow takes place this year, it would be a disaster for the country’s economy, as it has been suffering a big trade gap in the first half of 2011,” said a trader who declined to be named. — VNS

Tags: vietnam gold, Vietnam gold exports, Vietnam gold market