When I called the SGE I was told the “load-out volume” (withdrawals) will not be published anymore, a statement that matches the new reports. This is a disaster for the gold community. SGE withdrawals provided a unique transparent metric for Chinese gold demand and it’s gone.

However, the fact the Chinese stopped publishing SGE withdrawals once again strongly confirms the importance of these numbers from the past! Until December 2015 these numbers gave us a direct measure of Chinese wholesale gold demand. The truth became a little uncomfortable for the Chinese.