Koos Jansen interviewed on German TV about Chinese gold demand

Beware and always question everything… The perception that precious metals is a get rich opportunity may be misleading.
I see PM as a insurance activity against fraudulent institutions controlling national currencies (RISK), the money masters and their puppets. The Money in your bank account is no longer yours.
With that cautionary note in mind please read the bottom report about silver price deflation from Koos Jansen: “Exporting silver ingots as acoustic wire is another example of fraud”…
Be prepared and increase awareness by sharing information. ~Ron
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Dear Friend of GATA
China gold researcher and GATA consultant Koos Jansen, market analyst for Bullion Star in Singapore, was interviewed for 10 minutes this week by the German financial news network DAF, discussing China’s interest in gold and noting that Chinese gold demand is actually twice what is reported by the World Gold Council. -CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

When China Will Utilize Its Gold The Price Will Rise

On 27 Oct. 2014 I was interviewed by German financial TV network DAF, about the Chinese gold market. After it was broadcasted on October 30, the host, Markus Bußler, told me it was the most viewed video on the DAF website that day. I hope the message is spreading. It was only 10 minutes so I couldn’t go in-depth, but was happy to share a few key points.

Chinese consumer gold demand in 2013 was 2,200 tonnes, not 1,100 tonnes as the Wold Gold Council states.
Only for consumer demand China net imported 1,500 tonnes in 2013.
The best way to measure Chinese wholesale demand is by withdrawals from the Shanghai Gold Exchange vaults (SGE) – although this might change in the future.
The PBOC does not purchase gold through the SGE.
The PBOC is definitely increasing its official gold reserves.
China is the most important player in the gold market, they are the second largest economy in the world and accumulate gold for it’s monetary value and in anticipation of a new monetary system.
China still has a lot to work to do regarding the internationalization of the renminbi, developing their financial markets and diversify their FX reserves. In this sense China has no rush, it wants a gradual shift away from the US dollar.
When China will fully utilize the gold it is accumulating, I expect the price to rise.

Make sure the captions are on for the first 30 seconds in which I’m introduced in German. From 0:30 the interview is in English.

The Great Chinese Silver Market Debate

Posted on 31 Oct 2014 by Koos Jansen
Bloomberg came out on October 28 with an article about Chinese silver hitting a premium of 17 % this month.

Have a look at Bloomberg’s chart on Chinese silver premiums.

Regular readers know I’m one of the few that reports on the pure price of silver in China being cheaper than in London, because all Chinese commodity exchanges quote silver including 17 % VAT. If we subtract 17 % from the quoted prices, the pure price of silver in China is currently trading at a 4 % discount to London, not at a premium like Bloomberg states. As we can see in my chart below the premium is negative.

By the way, silver is still trading in backwardation on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE), since August 6. This has caused the discount to decline to 4 %.

Obviously Bloomberg and I have a disagreement on the Chinese silver market – comparable to my disagreement with the World Gold Council on the Chinese gold market. Though, the Silver Institute agrees with me on the Chinese silver market. In their report The Chinese Silver Market, published in 2012, they stated:

As mentioned earlier in this report, since the liberalization of the Chinese silver market, all
silver transactions are subject to 17% VAT in China. In other words, local smelters need to pay 17% tax on silver contained in imported concentrates (typically based on international prices). However, as domestic prices (excluding tax) have been trading consistently lower than the international price, it is not surprising that local smelters tend to prefer low silver content in imported concentrates. It is worth stressing here that silver prices quoted on commodity exchanges in China have already included a 17% VAT.

What is remarkable is that Bloomberg reports on a very high silver premium in China mainland, yet, they link this to a scheme in which traders export ingots labelled as acoustic wire to profit from a tax rebate. Quote:

Silver in China has been the most expensive relative to London in about three years as exporters stepped up overseas shipments to qualify for a tax rebate, draining inventories of the metal.

…exporters boosting shipments by classifying ingot as acoustic wire, said Liu Xu, a precious-metals analyst at Capital Futures Co. in Beijing.

…“It’s an open secret in the local silver industry that a lot of exports have been thinly-veiled attempts to profit from tax rebates,” Liu said. “There isn’t that much demand overseas for acoustic wire for stereos. Yet a lot of shipments this year have been labeled as wire.”

What’s wrong with this story? Why would any foreigner import silver ingots from China when it’s 14 % more expensive than in London? Doesn’t make sense right?

This is my view: it could very well be silver ingots are exported as acoustic wire from China because the pure price of silver in China is cheaper than in London (not more expensive as Bloomberg states). However, to arbitrage the price difference, foreign importers would need to be able to pay the pure price of Chinese silver, excluding VAT.

It can go like this. The exporter buys silver ingots, for example, on the SHFE and is required to pay the pure price plus 17 % VAT. When he would export this as ingots there is no VAT rebate for him from the government, this law was passed in 2008, so he would have to charge his trading partner the price of silver plus 17 % VAT to balance the VAT he paid at the SHFE. If the foreign importer is charged with VAT from another country he can’t get restitution, he would pay for the pure price of silver imported plus 17 %.

The Chinese government implemented the aforementioned law to withhold silver ingots/bullion from leaving the country. Of course silver is exported in many other forms, like in solar panels or acoustic wire. The next quote is from the law passed in 2008 that ended VAT rebates on silver ingot export.

Translated by my friend LK, gold investor from Hong Kong:

Department of Treasury, State Dept of Taxation Notice on Adjustment on Export Rebates of Textiles and other Commodities.

Document Number: Taxation[2008]111.

Issuing Unit: Department of Treasury, State Dept of Taxation

Issuing date: 2008-07-30

To each province, Self-Administrative Region, Municipal, Planning cities (bureaus), State Administration of Taxation, Finance Bureau of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps:

At the approval of the State Department, export rebates for certain commodity products are adjusted as follows:

1. Some textile, garment export rebate is raised from 11% to 13%; Export rebate for certain bamboo products is raised to 11%. For exact details please see Appendix 1.　

Export rebates for these products are cancelled: Pine kernels, certain agricultural chemicals, certain organic arsine chemicals, taxol and its products, rosin, silver, No. 0 zinc, certain paint products, certain battery products, carbon anode. For exact information please see Appendix 2.

Implementation Timing

The aforementioned export rebate changes take place on Aug 1, 2008. Applicability is determined by the date specified on the form “Export of Goods Customs Declaration (for Export Rebates)”.

…

Appendix 2. List of goods no longer qualified for export rebates:

If the exporter ships the ingots as acoustic wire he apparently receives a 17 % VAT rebate (the VAT of acoustic wire is paid back by the Chinese State Administration of Taxation to the exporter). In an article Bloomberg published October 30 they stated:

Outbound shipments of silver this year have at times been classified as acoustic wire as traders sought a 17 percent export rebate used to encourage domestic high-end manufacturing, Liu Xu, an analyst at Capital Futures Co., said Oct. 29.

There you have it, silver ingots don’t get a rebate when exported, acoustic wire does get a rebate. This is how the exporter can sell silver abroad for China’s cheaper pure price. So, the exporter found a way to arbitrage the price difference between Shanghai and London. If the difference is 4 %, both the exporter and the importer can have a piece of the pie. This scheme could perfectly cause high demand for silver in Shanghai and the concurrent backwardation on the SHFE. Bloomberg’s analysis, stating silver is trading at a premium in China, I think is incorrect – wouldn’t be the first time.

Exporting silver ingots as acoustic wire is another example of fraud and circumventing protectionism. Let’s hope governments will realize some day that capitalism can only thrive in free markets.

Koos Jansen

From the SHFE Rulebook:

Article 44

The contract price of a futures contract means the price including the value added tax, or the VAT, for the contract’s underlying standard grade of commodity delivered at the benchmark delivery warehouse.

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