Thứ Hai, 10 tháng 6, 2013

Another gold vault opens in Singapore

SINGAPORE: Gold investors now have another option when it comes to stashing their precious metal in Singapore.



Deutsche Bank announced on Monday that it has opened a vault in the Singapore FreePort amid Singapore’s drive to encourage gold trading in the city-state.



The bank’s vault has the capacity to house 200 tonnes of gold.



Mark Smallwood, head of wealth planning at Deutsche Asset Wealth Management for the Asia-Pacific region, said: “From the private client perspective, we have clients looking to move gold from other locations in the world.



“And from an institutional point of view, we see institutions from within the region… (which) are looking to have a physical allocation and to have it based in Singapore.”



This is because Singapore has introduced some attractive perks in its quest to become Asia’s gold trading hub.



Right now, the city-state has about 2 per cent of the world trade in gold bullion. But IE Singapore announced last year that it wants 10 to 15 per cent of market share in the next decade.


Last October, the government lifted a 7 per cent goods and services tax on gold and precious metals transactions.



Since then, IE Singapore said gold trade has increased 2.2 per cent from a year ago to 74.6 tonnes.


 In 2012, 129.4 tonnes of gold were traded in Singapore, compared to 131.2 tonnes in 2011.


Mr Smallwood said: “We should keep in mind that the bull market in gold has been going on since the early 2000s. Certainly within Asia and indeed within the Middle East, there’s always been a great affinity to gold as a store of wealth and the ability to utilize gold and access it is growing.”


However, Deutsche Bank’s vault opening comes at a time when gold prices are hovering around a 2-year low. Over the past few weeks, the gold price has been yo-yoing between US$1,350 and US$1,420 an ounce.



Some gold dealers said demand has tapered off as consumers wait on the sidelines to see what is going to happen.


Gold prices have dropped 17 per cent so far this year, after 12 straight years’ of annual gains.


Gold stood at US$1,378.75 an ounce in late Singapore trading on Monday.


Brian Lan, managing director of GoldSilver Central, which provides advice and purchasing channels for gold and silver bullion, said: “People are waiting to see what they should do next because the prices are more or less kept at current levels, not going up or down.



“People are holding back because of the uncertainty in what the Fed is going to do and the European crisis itself and what the ECB is going to do.”


Mr Lan said he expects demand to pick up again — because his clients are looking for long-term investments.


In the meantime, Deutsche Bank joins a handful of other gold storage facilities in Singapore, including JP Morgan Chase which opened a vault in 2010, and BullionVault which opened in April 2013.


Swiss-based Metalor is also set to open a new gold refinery in Singapore this year.



Another gold vault opens in Singapore

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