00:00So before Chinese New Year, we're starting to get gifts and, you know, people are starting to put money to
00:06give their family members, whether it's small bars or coins, and this definitely affects the demand.
00:12So what we see now in Hong Kong is, again, all those retail clients that now are trying to put
00:17their hands on small items to give to family members during the Chinese New Year celebration.
00:21Oh, that's a very sweet gift. I would love to get a gold bar for Chinese New Year.
00:25January 26 versus 25. And I can tell you, the number of transactions went up 180 percent and this volume
00:32of trading went up 560 percent in January year on year.
00:37So we're looking at really almost five times more sales and almost double the amount of trades that we've been
00:43doing year on year.
00:44So I just can show you where the industry itself, which is Vandila, right, where the industry itself is at.
00:50Do you think this momentum will carry forward?
00:52Yes. So I do think I would be cautious in terms of expecting the same pace, right?
00:57We're at, if you look at the last 12 months, gold is up 70 percent, silver is up 100 percent.
01:03I would be careful. I wouldn't anticipate such a rapid growth.
01:07But definitely we're looking at the two-digit price appreciation for both assets in 2026. It's very reasonable.
01:13Is there a risk of a bubble building or are you looking for, watching for any signals that could be
01:18a turning point?
01:18With gold, we're very bullish because, again, it's geopolitics that run kind of the price of gold now, that central
01:24banks are buying gold.
01:25So there's a good case for continued appreciation.
01:30Silver, I would say, in my opinion, and I may be a contrarian to this, silver a bit spiraled out
01:36of control in the last few weeks.
01:38I mean, we don't like the volatility as is. It was just too high.
01:42So this, I think, became kind of a speculative element in the market.
01:45Given the huge demand, are you seeing any supply tightness?
01:49In gold, there is some tightening in the supply, but it's still relatively, I would say, the gold is still
01:56available.
01:57Relatively, it's fine.
01:58Silver, it's been very tough in the last few weeks.
02:01And, you know, the big refiners in our region have stopped producing silver products.
02:06They've been taking order with backlogs of three, four and five months.
02:10So we're actually, everyone is really trying to get material and there's very fresh output from the refiners.
02:18So it's very difficult.
02:19We're now at a point when you need to import silver products from out of Hong Kong and Singapore to
02:25store it here,
02:25because we just cannot place our hands on enough material, enough goods to sell to our clients.
02:31So even now, we're still having backlog orders that will be fulfilled in the summer.
02:35So, let's do that.
Comments