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Vietnam has an abundance of natural resources. It has, however, historically faced a number of challenges developing its mining industry. That said, Vietnam has among the world’s biggest caches of rare earth minerals and a number of countries have expressed an eagerness to help Vietnam get them out of the ground. With this in mind, this section monitors Vietnam resources news, including minerals, oil, and precious gems.
This is in line with the market moving to its own beat, often much higher than the world gold price, on the back of regulations that severely limit the importation of gold yet a culture that sees gold as an important store of wealth. This, coupled with challenging economic conditions, has fueled demand with the State Bank, reluctant to allow the import of more gold in the event it might put greater pressure on the local currency. Instead it has taken to selling gold from its own reserves to deflate the gold bar price…
Of note, State Bank gold bars were previously being sold through four majority state-owned banks, at well below market price, with huge queues of customers looking to buy up the cheap State Bank gold. This has since moved online and now that demand is much less visible. That said, the rising price of gold rings could suggest there may be a supply side issue with respect to gold bars…
This move, however, may have inadvertently facilitated a spike in demand giving people who don’t have the time to wait in queues at banks a more efficient means to buy the relatively cheap gold on offer. Of note, Agribank reported that at one point there were 50,000 attempts to register to buy gold at one time through its online portal…
There was a similar situation last month whereby Reuters reported that the state power provider had asked a key Apple supplier to reduce its power consumption, however, the state power provider later came out and said this wasn’t accurate. It should be noted that government ministries and departments and state-owned enterprises generally do not respond to requests for comment from foreign media. With this in mind, a simple solution might be to reform this practice.
Of note, the price it is paying to its key suppliers has varied widely over the first five months of the year. Its most expensive coal imports have come from China averaging US$302 per ton versus its cheapest coal imports from Laos which have cost US$68 a ton by the same metric. On average, it has paid US$166 per ton…
If this is accurate, this would signal an interesting turn of events. To be clear, the State Bank took control over gold imports and exports to stabilise the local currency when inflation surged back in 2011. At the time, gold was being used as a store of wealth to hedge against inflation and banks were permitted to lend and borrow against the yellow metal which was pushing up demand (incidentally this practice was banned in 2012, too). This was increasing demand for US dollars to import more gold and subsequently putting inflationary pressure on the local currency…
This comes in the context of a rush to buy gold in Vietnam after the State Bank announced it would start selling gold from its reserves at well-below market prices to try and close the gap between local and world gold prices. Previously, the State Bank had tried to auction off its gold to several gold companies and financial institutions but the price was set relatively high and interest from these institutions was lacklustre at best…
With the huge demand for rare earth minerals and the ongoing geopolitical tensions between the world’s biggest rare earths producer, China, and the world’s biggest rare earths consumers the US, Vietnam has the attention of rare earth miners and processors the world over. A clear direction forward, however, is still somewhat elusive but there has been a lot of movement in the industry over the last twelve months.
Previously, the State Bank had tried to auction off its gold to several gold companies and financial institutions but the price was set relatively high and interest from these institutions was lacklustre at best. Of note, a number of gold shops ran out of gold bars yesterday, some reportedly in just one hour. With little utility in general, and even less for consumers, it looks very much like these gold purchases are for investment purposes.
Gold was trading at US$2,684.20 per troy ounce in Vietnam on Saturday. Conversely, on the world market gold trading at US$2,327.36. The difference of US$356.84 or 13.29 percent is markedly lower than it was earlier this year when gold in Vietnam topped US$2,910.58 per troy ounce which was, at the time, about 20 percent higher than the world gold price.
This decision came about after a series of gold auctions, in which 47,000 taels of gold were sold to an assortment of banks and gold retailers failed to impact the local gold price to the extent the SBV had hoped…
On the one hand, the State Bank wants to bring down the price of gold which is much higher than the world gold price because there is more demand than there is supply. On the other hand, the State Bank doesn’t want US dollars leaving the country because this creates inflationary pressure on the dong. If it sounds like these policies are contradictory then that is because they are…
This announcement seems like a positive step forward but there seems to be a lot of moving parts when it comes to rare earth mining in Vietnam and this press release seems a little too clean-cut. For example, there were a…
With reserves estimated to be the second biggest in the world after China, and rare earth minerals becoming increasingly necessary in a slew of electronics, miners from all over have been actively courting partnerships with Vietnamese mining firms. Needless to say, partnerships with local universities is one way for these firms to open doors…
This latest development is a vast improvement with a series of past gold auctions selling only a few thousand gold bars or being cancelled altogether due to lack of interest. The change of circumstances is likely due to changes to this gold auction that saw the minimum order significantly reduced.
The State Bank of Vietnam is still trying to auction off gold to bring down the gold price, despite several failed auctions amid an overheated gold market. This latest gold auction has 16,800 taels of gold up for grabs in lots of 500 taels down from 700 in past auctions,
Vietnam’s gold price topped VND 91.5 million a tael or 2,958.50 per troy ounce yesterday, a new peak for the yellow metal. At the same time, gold was trading on the world market for US$2,353 per troy ounce, a difference of US$605.50 or about 20.47 percent. To try to close
Vietnam has held its second successful gold auction this year, however, the State Bank of Vietnam–theSBV–only managed to sell 3,400 SJC gold bars, Tuoi Tre is reporting. Of note, multiple gold auctions have been announced in the last few weeks but have been cancelled due to a lack of interest.
A gold auction of State Bank of Vietnam–SBV–gold reserves slated for Monday was cancelled and a gold auction that went ahead Tuesday had just two bidders, as a result of floor prices that were too high, VN Express is reporting. It also says that the minimum volume, of 1,400 taels
In an odd turn of events, a gold auction slated for yesterday was cancelled due to a lack of interest and a second, today, had just two bidders that bought a collective 3,400 taels of gold of the 16,400 on offer, VN Express is reporting. This is after gold auctions
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