China’s net gold imports from Hong Kong increased to 16.2 tons in November, doubling from October’s level. Despite this rise, overall imports remain low compared to earlier months, indicating reduced demand.<\/p>\n
Gross figures for November stayed at 30.2 tons, similar to October, while exports dropped to just over 14 tons. In the first eleven months of 2025, net imports equalled 191.7 tons, a 45.5% decrease from the previous year.<\/p>\n
Comparatively, exports more than doubled over the previous year, even as imports declined by 11%. The previous year’s surge in gold prices dampened China’s import demand but boosted exports due to weaker domestic demand. Similar trends were observed with lower gold shipments from Switzerland to China and Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
We are seeing that China’s net gold imports through Hong Kong, while doubling in November 2025 from a weak October, remained historically low. Looking back, total net imports for the first eleven months of last year were down a staggering 45.5% from the same period in 2024. This signals that Chinese buyers are extremely sensitive to the high gold prices we saw throughout last year.<\/p>\n
This price sensitivity is a critical factor for us, as the sharp rise in gold’s price in 2025 not only slowed import demand but also encouraged stronger exports. We have seen this pattern before, where high prices can temporarily cool buying from major physical markets. This trend was further supported by data from Switzerland, which also showed significantly lower gold deliveries to China in 2025.<\/p>\n
As of today, January 9, 2026, gold prices have eased from their late 2025 peaks, dropping about 6% to trade near $2,280 per ounce. This pullback could present a key buying opportunity for Chinese consumers who were previously deterred by record highs. We should watch for signs that this lower price is reigniting physical demand.<\/p>\n
The timing is especially important with the Lunar New Year approaching on February 17th. This holiday is a peak season for gold consumption, meaning jewelers and retailers will need to restock inventory in the coming weeks. A combination of seasonally strong demand and more attractive prices could support gold derivatives.<\/p>\n
We are also monitoring official sector activity, as the People’s Bank of China paused its gold purchases in the final two months of 2025 after an 18-month buying streak. A resumption of central bank buying at these lower price levels would be a powerful bullish signal for the market. Conversely, continued inaction from the PBoC could suggest they are waiting for an even bigger price dip.<\/p>\n
Create your live VT Markets account<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0start trading<\/a>\u00a0now. <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" China’s gold imports from Hong Kong rose in November, yet overall demand remains lower than previous years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":16982,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-updates"],"acf":{"acf_article_selection_author":null},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}