Gold prices to increase this year, experts
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| Tran Huy Nhan, head of the marketing department of SJC, shows the real (R) and fake SJC gold bars at a press briefing in HCMC on Thursday - Photo: Uyen Vien |
Nguyen Thanh Long, CEO of the company, told a press conference in the city on Thursday that these gold bars were found at around 4 p.m. on Tuesday in Tan Binh District. “Out of suspicion, some private gold stores removed the packaging of those SJC 999.9 gold bars for a quality test and discovered real gold accounts for 97%-98% of volume.” A tael equals 1.2 troy ounces.
He said the packaging of the low-quality gold was softer than that for the genuine one. If using a magnifier, one can see sands in the packaging for the imitation gold and larger numbers than the real, he added.
Do Cong Chinh, deputy general director of SJC, said that on Thursday morning the company and police also found a number of SJC-branded gold bars not produced by SJC in districts 5 and Hoc Mon.
“The fake SJC gold now comes in the form of the one-tael bar,” Chinh said, showing some tips for people to recognize the fake and the real. The four corners of the bogus are slightly worn out, its weight is about 0.7-1.2 gram less than the genuine, number 3 looks like number 8, the number 999.9 touches letter G in ‘Rong Vang’, and the dragon’s teeth are close together.
Chinh said the company had yet to produce gold bars with an FS series but such a series had been found on the market. The company has warned all SJC branches and agencies nationwide of the issue and shown how to recognize the imitation gold.
The company produces about 20,000 gold taels a day on average and there have been 15 million gold taels marketed under the SJC brand in Vietnam. The company has processed about 20 tons of gold in 20 years.
The company said that from September, SJC would upgrade gold processing technology and change packaging in a move to fight the fake.
* Local experts have forecast gold prices will increase strongly in the rest months of this year after steadily shooting up.
They said gold prices might climb to a record high of US$1,300 an ounce and around VND30 million per tael in Vietnam given mounting inflation and base rate pressures.
Expert Phan Dung Khanh said gold and jewelry demands on global markets would surge strongly in the months to come in the lead up to the wedding season in India and China, the world’s two largest gold consumers. Major Islamic festivals will also take place then, leading gold demand to increase.
Gold investment funds worldwide from early August began to boost gold purchasing after strongly offloading the yellow metal in July. The world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, acquired nearly 15 tons of gold in the first half of this month.
Ton The Vinh Quyen, marketing director of Sacombank Jewelry Co., has estimated gold to continue increasing as gold demand would rise sharply. “Central banks globally have boosted their currency holdings, including gold, prompting the metal to rally,” Quyen said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank have warned of a slow recovery of the world economy and urged solutions against a possible double dip. As a result, gold becomes a safe haven for investors, said the director of a gold enterprise.
Quyen said local gold prices were still affected by world prices. Other factors such as central bank polices worldwide, foreign exchange rates and physical gold export and import will also affect gold prices.
However, for a long term, the rise in local gold prices will continue in line with the global trend, Quyen said.
Vietnam’s largest gold trader, SJC, on Thursday alerted the public that counterfeit products bearing the company logo are circulating on the market.