Cracks appear in China's gold leasing trade as jewelers suffer defaults
By GCRU Gold News on Friday, November 20 2015, 23:18 - Permalink
Chinese banks are growing alarmed by a rising number of defaults among jewelry manufacturers, prompting them to review new gold lending more carefully in the world's biggest consumer, according to sources with direct knowledge of the issue.
The top four Chinese banks alone have up to 443.4 billion yuan ($69.63 billion) tied up in gold leasing, so any pull back could cut China's imports and hit global bullion prices that are already languishing at the lowest in more than five years.
Nearly all is likely tied up in gold financing and at current prices would amount to around 2,000 tonnes of bullion.
Cracks appear in China's gold leasing trade as jewelers suffer defaults