Chinese Demand For Gold “Explosive”

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Wednesday, February 16, 2011

According to an executive of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world’s largest bank by market value, demand in China for physical gold and gold-related investments is growing at an “explosive” pace and its appetite for the yellow metal is poised to remain robust amid inflation concerns, reports Reuters. In other words, what was previously repeatedly reported on Zero Hedge, and by the World Gold Council, is starting to be appreciated by everyone else. Yet in a market in which supply and demand are completely disconnected from price discovery thanks to global central planning, and courtesy of precious metal price suppression by JPM, China investors are able to accumulate gold and other non-dilutable metals at prices that no longer reflect surging global demand. And just like in the US, China is also starting to fall for physical substitute investments: “There is also frantic demand for non-physical gold investments. We issued 1 billion yuan worth of gold-price-linked term deposits in 2010, but we managed to sell the same amount over just a few days in January this year,” Zhou said, adding that such deposits would easily exceed 5 billion yuan ($759 million) this year.” Although in China, unlike in London, these deposits may actually have real coverage behind them.
From Reuters:

ICBC, the world’s largest bank by market value, sold about 7 tonnes of physical gold in January this year, nearly half the 15 tonnes of bullion sold in the whole of 2010, said Zhou Ming, deputy head of the bank’s precious metals department on Wednesday.

“We are seeing explosive demand for gold. As Chinese get wealthy, they look to diversify their investments and gold stands out as a good hedge against inflation,” Zhou told Reuters.

Gold imports into China soared in 2010, turning the country, already the largest bullion miner, into a major overseas buyer for the first time.

The surge, which comes as Chinese investors look for insurance against rising inflation and currency appreciation, puts the country on track to overtake India as the world’s top gold consumer and a significant force in global gold prices.

Oh yes, silver too

Zhou said there was also voracious demand for silver, with the bank selling about 13 tonnes of physical silver in January alone, compared with 33 tonnes in the whole of 2010.

Not surprisingly, China is doing all it can to offload bubble frenzy to its billion plus consumers:

The bank on Tuesday launched its second physical gold investment product, which sells gold bars to investors, which can be resold for cash through ICBC based on real-time gold prices.

The WGC said ICBC’s introduction of this gold investment could lift China’s gold retail investment by 10 to 15 percent in 2011 from about 170 tonnes last year.

For those who think gold is already in a bubble… check back in 1 year.