Gold firms get import quotas amid price rally

HCMC – The State Bank of Vietnam on Thursday issued quotas for local enterprises to import gold, sending domestic gold prices down after strong rallies in the previous days.

Nguyen Thi Cuc, deputy general director of Phu Nhuan Jewelry Co. (PNJ), said her company had been allowed to import 300 kg of gold, or around 8,000 taels – a local measurement unit equivalent to 1.2 troy ounces.

PNJ has placed orders with foreign partners and shipments are expected to arrive in Vietnam late this week at the earliest.

Truong Cong Nho, deputy general director of Saigon Jewelry Holding Co. (SJC), said SJC could import 200 kg of gold, or 5,330 taels, and that the yellow metal would arrive early next week.

Domestic gold shot up to VND33.03 million and VND33.1 million per tael for buying and selling respectively at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday but the prices later dropped by nearly VND300,000 shortly after the import quotas were announced.

Local gold on Thursday was VND130,000 per tael higher than the world level, down from the VND860,000 recorded on the previous day.

The central bank also extended import quotas to other large gold firms such as Agribank and Sacombank jewelry companies but the quotas are small.

“The central bank decision will leave a positive psychological impact on the market, helping to ease price hikes, encourage buying and curb selling. Local gold prices might be lower than the world in the future,” Cuc said.

Cuc added buying surged strongly from 3:30 p.m. on Thursday. PNJ as of 5:00 p.m. had sold 5,000 taels and bought 2,800 taels.

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Jan-Aug textile export poised to surge 17%

HCMC – The garment and textile industry expects to achieve total export revenue of some US$6.8 billion in the first eight months of the year, a year-on-year rise of nearly 17%, said a Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas) official.

Nguyen Son, deputy general secretary of the association, told the Daily on Tuesday that the export of garment and textile products of the country was steadily growing, with August revenue projected to amount to around US$1, equivalent to July.

Son said garment and textile exports to some foreign markets such as Korea, the U.S., Japan and Europe were still on the path to recovery. Garment exports to the U.S. in January through August are forecast to attain year-on-year growth of 20%, European markets 3%, Japan 13% and Korea nearly 70%.

“The industry is striving for average export revenue of US$900 million a month from now to the year-end to translate into reality its target of US$10.5 billion for all of this year,” said the deputy general secretary of Vitas.

Export garments and textiles, particularly those of high quality, can compete well with those in other countries in terms of prices.

Though the industry’s export performance is brighter than in previous months, Son of Vitas said, local producers are still grappling with rising production costs because import materials such as cotton and fiber have inched up 2% from last month.

Meanwhile, he said, domestic materials supply for the industry is barely sufficient while demand keeps growing. Most materials for the industry are imported from other markets, such as China with 35% and Korea with 16%.

To guarantee adequate materials for local garment and textile manufacturers, the Government assigned the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group or Vinatex long ago to develop materials production zones around the country.

“But the country now has one operational materials center that supplies for local garment firms in the southern region,” said Son of Vitas. This is Sanding Tam center located in HCMC’s Tan Binh District but, he said, this center was not doing fine.

While local garment enterprises have strong demand for quality materials to fulfill their export orders, Son said, construction of material centers nationwide has made no headway.

This is ascribable to unclear policy for material center development. Certain companies have spent their own money building material supply centers but some of these centers have died young due to lack of customer interest, Son said.

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