Gold shortages in China
ICBC and Agricultural Bank of China have run out of investment gold bars. And silver premiums over London spot are 13%. Comex silver contract is sinking into irrelevance.
Last weekend, the US and Israel attacked Iran and the week’s news was dominated by another Middle East war. Markets’ gut reaction was to mark down investment assets and mark up dollars. Consequently, in the confusion gold and silver declined on the week as the dollar rallied. In European trade this morning gold was $5090, down $230 from last Friday’s close, and silver at $82.70 was down $11 over the same timescale. Turnover on Comex in both contracts remained very low.
Meanwhile, premiums for silver in Shanghai held in the 12%—14% band. Given that silver imported into China bears 13% VAT and the cost of delivering from London or New York adds an extra 2%, this price difference is not enough to trigger an arbitrage. Nonetheless, silver is still being drained from all vaults, China’s included.
The delivery situation on Comex is dire, with the equivalent of only 16,250 silver contracts registered for delivery. Compare this with the 6,466 contracts delivered in
