Precious metal dealers in Germany have literally been run down after the latest slump in gold and silver. Wholesalers already expect deferred deliveries.
The latest plunge in gold and silver late last week has led to a sharp increase in demand by German precious metals investors, which also continued on Saturday. There was a particularly strong demand for silver coins. “On Thursday and Friday people had to draw numbers in order for us to control the run”, reports Andreas Heubach, CEO of Heubach Edelmetalle in Nuremberg. “On both days we sold each around 40,000 silver ounces – incredible”, he said. “Demand is back – and hysteria as well”, he evaluated.
Tremendous Run
“The run is tremendous, even today on a Saturday”, Christian Brenner, CEO of Philoro Edelmetalle GmbH in Leipzig and Berlin reports. Despite the high counter trade level in September, demand has increased by 100 percent, online-trade even soared by 300 percent.
“Run is not the right expression“, says René Lehmann of Münzland in Dresden. “We’ve seen up to 80 percent of our regular customers taking advantage of the slide to build up more positions. On those two days, on Thursday and Friday, we made approximately 50 percent of our monthly revenue”, he reports to Goldreporter. Maple Leaf (1 oz.), 1 kg Lunar and ½ oz. Great White Shark were particularly in demand, since Münzland had a special offer on them. In gold especially 1 oz. Maple Leaf and 1 oz. bars have been purchased. The ratio of buyers to sellers has generally been at 50 to 1.
Dominik Lochmann, CEO of ESG Edelmetall Service GmbH & Co. KG, confirms the surge in silver coins that are subject to differential taxation. Even higher taxed 1 kg silver bullion did very well.
Increased demand also for gold
The big German precious metal dealers also confirm the strong growth in turnover. Oliver Heuschuch, head of precious metal trades at Degussa Goldhandel GmbH, didn’t report to Goldreporter that there is a particular increase of demand for silver, but sales in general have “greatly improved”.
Robert Hartmann, CEO of Pro Aurum, was more specific: “On Thursday demand had improved considerably. On Friday we had 250 percent more business (tickets) than on average in the weeks before. But it were rather gold bullion and coins that people focused on. Silver demand rose about 1.5 times.“
Read more: Deferred deliveries foreseeable / Austria (page 2)
