Japan is set to become a net gold exporter for the sixth consecutive year in 2011
(REUTERS) -
Japan’s net gold exportsrose to 16.8 tonnes in August, nearly triple net outflows in July, as households aggressively sold their gold holdingsto cash in on a global rally in the precious metal last month.
August’s exports were likely a record for a single month, analysts said, helping keep Japan on track to mark record net bullion exports again this year.
Japan exported a total of 91 tonnes of gold and imported 13 tonnes in 2010, resulting in record net exports of 78 tonnes, about a quarter of annual output from top miner China.
When domestic supply such as from retail investors selling to bullion houses exceeds demand, the surplus is exported.
“It is unclear if the pace of selling will remain as brisk as it was in August, but the net volume of Japanese exports is expected to stay large, and is likely to set a record this year,” said Koichiro Kamei, managing director at financial research firm Market Strategy Institute in Tokyo.
That’s tied to expectations the gold market still has more scope for upside in the rest of 2011, due to demand underpinned by festivals in top consumers India and China, as well as financial and growth worries in Europe and the United States spurring flight to quality, Kamei said.
As long as the Japanese remain sellers as the gold price rallies, Japan is set to be a net gold exporter for the sixth consecutive year in 2011, analysts said.
Ministry of Finance data showed on Thursday that Japan’s total gold exports stood at 16.9 tonnes against imports of 0.1 tonnes in August, compared to a net 6.1 tonnes exported in July.
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BANGKOK RISING gold prices are worrying gold leaf makers in Thailand, where tonnes of the precious metal are turned into paper-thin sheets to decorate temples and images of the Buddha every year. One of the goldsmiths, who works in Sainoi near Bangkok, calls himself Bird. As he wields the hammer in his workshop, his movements make the tattoos on his muscular arms dance. The five or six-kilo hammer whizzes with such a force onto the small leather packet containing thin sheets of gold, that it reverberates through the floor. The young goldsmith must hammer the sheets ever thinner. The goal is a thickness of about one ten-thousandth of a millimetre. He lets a pearl of sweat roll down his skin without wiping it away. Bird works in the family-run Sangwijit business, which has delivered gold leaf to temples all over Thailand for 50 years. Gold leaf is used worldwide to lend towers and statues a shimmering glow. In Thailand and other Buddhist countries, templesand Buddha images are gilded more and more frequently. The gold leaf is produced primarily by family businesses. The exact amount of gold used or the number of businesses is not known. In 2010, Thailand went through 196 tonnes of gold bars, according to a gold traders’ association. The one-of-a-kind three-metreshigh, 5.5-tonne Buddha image in the Bangkok temple of Wat Traimet is made of pure gold. The other Buddha images are merely gilded. Temples sell stamp-sized gold leaf for a few cents, so visitors can affix to statues gold which adheres on its own, for luck and to improve their karma for the next life. The precious metal is treasured as a symbol of purity, and is said to ward off evil. The Sangwijit gold factory in Sainoi, 50 kilometres north-west of Bangkok, is headed by Chujit, 57. The wiry matriarch has ten workshops in which she employs about 100 close or distant relatives.”
Jim Rogers: buy gold on dips , gold price correction may take awhile
China Business News, Oct 2 2011 1:43AMInvestment Guru Jim Rogers told Indian magazine The EconomicTimes of India that the gold and silver priceswill readjust. Now is the time to buy up silver and gold, if you can get it.
Jim Rogers: “I doubt if it (Gold Price) will go to $2000 an ounce in 2011, it is more likely to have a correction which will last for several weeks, several months. It has been very strong. If it goes down some more, I would buy more gold as I have told you many times.”
“Not yet, but if silver continues to go down as we have discussed before, I will buy more silver too. Do not sell your silver, do not sell your gold unless you are a short-term trader, but anybody who is in this for a long term, silver and goldwill both go much higher over the next few years.”
“It is panic, it is fear. When fear permeates a market, everybody sells, especially the last ones in, frequently have to jump out. They have raised margin requirements for both silver and gold. So that makes it more and more difficult for people to hold on.” – in ET Now
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Emerging market countries continue to top up their gold reserves - China Business News, Oct 2 2011 1:22AMEMERGING market countries are continuing to top up their gold reserves, with Russia, Thailand and Bolivia among those to add to their holdings in August as developing economies continue to diversify away from traditional reserve currencies.
Recently, emerging market central banks have bought gold in reaction to the sovereign debt crises affecting the US dollar and the euro, analysts say. Demand has also risen strongly in recent quarters as some seek to diversify foreign exchange reserves that have grown along with emerging market export industries.
The central bank of Russia, a regular buyer from its own domestic market, continued its long-term program of gold accumulation in August by adding 118,000 troy ounces to its reserves, which now stand at 27.161 million ounces, according to figures from the International Monetary Fund.
Russia’s holdings are up more than 7 per cent on the start of 2011.
However, Russia wasn’t the only country to acquire gold last month as the price on the spot market soared to record highs before touching $US1920.94 a troy ounce on September 6. There is no indication any central bank buys gold on the spot market.
Thailand continued to boost its reserves, lifting them 300,000 ounces to 4.4 million ounces — a significant step up from its January holdings of 3.2 million ounces.
The Bolivian central bank lifted reserves by 225,000 ounces to 1.361 million ounces. Tajikistan and Greece also reported minor additions to their bullion holdings, the IMF data show.
Net central bank gold purchases are expected to total at least 336 metric tonnes this year, equal to around $US20 billion based on recent prices, metals consultancy GFMS said earlier this month.
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Have you missed the boat on gold?
Last week, gold saw a three-day drop and even slipped below $1,600 an ounce - a pretty long fall from its record $1,921.15 on Sept. 6.
Does that mean the end of the gold rush is near? Not necessarily, some analysts say.
"When the market gets very panicky, they sell everything off, and they go for cash and Treasuries because that's really the largest market where you can park your money," Gijsbert Groenewegen, a partner at Silver Arrow Capital Management, told Bloomberg News. "It's a great opportunity to accumulate more gold and silver."
Gold managed to regain some momentum by the end of week as investors again sought a safe haven, but ideas about what to expect in the days ahead are mixed.
In a Bloomberg survey of 35 traders, investors and analysts, 20 said bullion will rise next week, six predicted a drop, and nine were neutral.
An even more bullish prediction came from AngloGold Ashanti, the world's largest producer of gold based in Johannesburg.
The company's chief executive officer told reporters last week in Brazil that gold may trade at $1,700 to $2,200 an ounce near year, according to Bloomberg News.
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