Editor’s note:  Following the receipt of clarifying information the implications of the article below may be a little misleading and premature.  However we are keeping the article on site so readers can understand how a misinterpretation of new SGE data in a different format came about.  Reading this note, plus a follow-up article – An answer to the hugely anomalous 2016 Week 1 SGE Gold Delivery figure  may clarify the situation with regard to the latest SGE reporting figures.

The Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) announces its weekly gold withdrawals figure on Fridays – reporting the withdrawals a week in arrears.  So this Friday it came up with the figures  for Week 1 2016 (from January 4-9).  it presented them in a new format and has also started to release weekly silver withdrawal figures which it had not been doing in the past.

So far so good, but the announced weekly gold  figure on the face of things on this occasion was SO HIGH, that some observers think it must have been a typo.  The announced figure was fully 238.2 tonnes – around twice the previous weekly record level set back in 2013, which was itself more than around two times the normal prevailing weekly level at the time, and has not been  neared since.  last year saw some abnormally high weekly SGE withdrawal figures, but this amount is three times higher than the highest weekly figure in 2015

So far there has not been a correction to the announced figure, but we will continue to monitor the SGE site in case it was a mistaken entry (See subsequent post for an explanation).  This may not arise until next Friday when the cumulative figure for the first two weeks will also be announced.

There is some further comment on this in an article I’ve posted on the Sharps Pixley site – click here to read