Russia has sharply increased its exports of raw or semi-finished gold to China – the volume of supplies has reached a maximum since 2016. It is reported by RBC with reference to the data of the General Administration of Customs of China.
In October, Russia delivered 2.16 tons of gold to China for $124.6 million, and it was this supply that set a record since 2016. Compared to October last year, the volume of gold exports increased by 50%, since the beginning of 2022, the export of raw gold to China amounted to 5.72 tons, which is 1.9 times more than the same indicator last year. In monetary terms, exports grew 1.8 times to $330 million.
At the same time, the total share of raw gold supplies to China among all importers is extremely small. The leader of the rating is Switzerland, which has supplied China with $26.5 billion worth of gold since the beginning of the year, Canada is in second place ($9.7 billion), South Africa is third ($7.7), followed by Australia ($7.2 billion), Hong Kong ($2.5 billion) and Germany ($775 million). Last year, the entire export of gold from Russia amounted to 302.17 tons, of which only 3.98 tons came from China.
Experts attribute the sharp increase in exports to the lifting of a number of covid restrictions in China, as well as the opening of borders. This opinion was expressed in a conversation with the publication by the chairman of the Union of Gold Producers of Russia Sergey Kashuba. However, another factor may be an excess of gold in the domestic Russian market, caused by Western sanctions , after which the main trading floors of the planet in the UK and Switzerland became inaccessible for Russian producers.