The global demand for gold jewellery in Q2 2013 recorded a significant up by 37 percent in quantity and 20 percent in value, with India and China holding dominant positions, according to a Fiera Di Vicenza (FdV) release where stated the two Asian giants already accounted for a total of 59.3 percent of global jewellery demand. Gold Demand Trends published by the World Gold Council (WGC) has elaborated the trend.
The WGC report said that jewellery consumers in Q2 2013 were out in force again, with the most notable year-on-year improvements occurring in India, China, the Middle East and other Asian countries. Most of the markets focused on higher-karat jewellery largely for investment purpose. The report emphasized that the consumer market for gold was once again dominated by India and China in the quarter, where the purchases were made for both consumption and trading.
The US gold jewellery market continued its downward trend from 5.7 percent of the total demand in Q2 2012 to 3.5 percent in Q2 2013, stated the FdV report. According to WGC, the demand drop was mainly due to a shift to lower-karat items in the US middle segment. The demand in Russia was also seen a slowdown, ranking from the fourth in late 2012 to the seventh in Q2 2013. As the gateway to Russia, Turkey recorded a surprising 4.6 percent of the world’s demand for gold jewellery in Q2 2013. According to the WGC analysis, Italian consumers have begun to appreciate jewellery made in silver or even non-precious alternatives. The consequence of the changing preference was seen on the data released by FdV, which was a 9 percent drop in Italy’s domestic demand for gold jewellery in Q2 2013 over the same period of 2012.
However, in terms of jewellery exports, Italy has shown a positive sign after two years of downward trends, recording an increase of 6 percent in value and 2.6 percent in quantity in Q2 2013 over the same period of 2012, according to FdV. Among all markets, the United Arab Emirates and the United States posted a significant growth, up by 32 percent and 12 percent in export value respectively.
Jewellery exports from Italy have substantially moved towards traditional markets, in which the UAE and Switzerland altogether accounted for over 40 percent in value. Followed the two countries were the United States, France, Hong Kong, China, Turkey, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain. The report emphasized that its exports to China in 2013 maintained at the same level of 2012. The stagnation was due to the fact that Hong Kong, as a bridge between the mainland and Italy, attracted more imports from Italy by 20 percent. As the largest gold jewellery market accounting for 32.7 percent of world demand, India, however, was absent from Italy’s top markets. The report stated that India was a difficult market due to the control of local manufacturers and the strong protectionist trade barriers. (The import duties reached 10 percent in August 2013.).
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