Happy Holidays

A quick Christmas Day post to keep China gold followers up to date.  SGE withdrawals for Week 49 (the week ended December 18th) were back on the upwards path as the Chinese New Year draws nearer.  51.747 tonnes of gold were withdrawn making foe a total so far this year of 2,502.6 tonnes – already around 322 tonnes more than the previous full year record of 2,181 tonnes achieved in 2013, and with the best part of two trading weeks still to go.  We thus stand by our estimate for the year of total withdrawals as ending the year in the high 2,500s – equivalent to around 80% of total global annual new  mined gold production.

If anything shows that Chinese gold demand is running high this year, despite the much more limited figures being put out by the major analytical consultancies which only appear to cover a proportion of total Chinese gold demand, then these latest figures demonstrate this strongly, if only in comparison with the previous SGE record withdrawal figures.