UK companies exported about 14% of all the non-central-bank held gold in the country in the first six months of the year to Switzerland.
UK gold exports to Switzerland increased to 798 tonnes in the first six months of the year, up from just 83 tonnes in the first half of 2012, according to data from Eurostat. The assumption is that the buyers in Switzerland were mostly from China and India.
Those are some staggering flows and make me wonder if buyers have drawn a line under gold. Then again, how much buying ammunition can Asia provide? Then again, it’s dangerous to read too much into the moves which don’t necessarily imply a change of ownership. It could simply be a move to melt large bars into smaller pieces at the many refineries in Switzerland. Or a warehousing change (GlencoreXtrata?)
