Another of my articles on Sharpspixley.com emphasising the reduction in importance of Hong Kong as a conduit for gold flows into mainland China.  The latest gold export figures from Switzerland demonstrate this well.  For many year gold flows through Hong Kong were considered a proxy for those into China at which time ups and downs in the Hong Kong figures were indeed significant – but the Territory has for several years now been of diminishing importance in this respect but still some of the media considers them as the proxy for ups and downs in Chinese demand.  Such articles should thus be ignored as not presenting the true picture.

An excerpt from my Sharps Pixley article follows – and a link to the full article is available by clicking here:

Perhaps then biggest surprise was the enormous fall in gold exports to Hong Kong in the Ausuts Swiss gold export figures. The Chinese semi-autonomous administrative state imported only 3.4 tonnes of gold from Switzerland in August demonstrating in no uncertain terms that the Territory is being sidelined as an import routing for mainland Chinese gold imports in favour of mainland ports of entry like Beijing and Shanghai. Hong Kong gold imports can definitely no longer be considered a proxy for Chinese gold demand as we have been saying for some time, although global media still gives undue importance to the level of Hong Kong gold imports and to the Territory’s exposts to the Chinese mainland.

Mainland China was again the biggest recipient of Swiss gold in August at 45.2 tonnes, closely followed by India with 40 tonnes (see chart from Nick Laird’s www.goldchartsrus.com website below.), suggesting that gold demand in the two biggest gold consumers is holding up reasonably well, but perhaps the biggest surprises were the big rise in Swiss gold exports to Singapore (12.6 tonnes) and even more so Thailand (21.6 tonnes). Interestingly Turkey apparently imported no gold at all from Switzerland in August, but actually exported 12.8 tonnes to the small European nation at the centre of the global gold refining trade.

As usual, the Swiss figures show an ever-continuing flow of gold from West to East with Asia and the Middle East accounting for over 88% of the total export figures…..

To read the rest of the article and view a graphic of the latest country-by-country Swiss gold exports please click on this link