Proposal to import gold to cool down price fever

Gold prices are constantly soaring, while gold companies do not have enough gold to sell to people. Gold jewelry companies are also "hungry" for raw materials. Many businesses and experts have suggested that gold imports should be allowed to help the gold market "have ins and outs".

Many businesses and experts recommend allowing gold imports to help connect the gold market, contributing to cooling down gold prices - Photo: THANH HIEP

On March 20, the world gold price set a new record at 3,051 USD/ounce, pushing the domestic gold price past the 100 million VND/tael threshold, up to 100.4 million VND/tael, before falling below 100 million VND/tael at the end of the day when the world gold price reversed, falling to 3,025 USD/ounce (equivalent to 93.87 million VND/tael).

Gold prices increase rapidly, difficult to buy

On March 20, banks selling "stabilized" gold still announced gold prices, but customers could hardly buy them. For example, Vietcombank announced the price of gold bars at VND10,040,000/tael, while Agribank and VietinBank listed VND10,400,000/tael. However, Ms. NTL (Nam Tu Liem, Hanoi) said she could not buy SJC gold bars on the apps of these banks.

To pay off the debt of 4 taels of SJC gold bars borrowed from relatives over a year ago, before Tet, Ms. L. was able to buy 2 taels of gold through the bank. "But for the past three days, I have been unable to register to buy.

For example, at 9:30 a.m. on March 20, I registered to buy gold through Vietcombank's application, but the banking system automatically notified me to choose another transaction point or return to register the next day. The reason was that the bank had received enough customers to register to buy SJC gold bars on March 20," said Ms. L.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Trong, director of New Partner Gold Company (NPJ), said that due to limited domestic gold supply, large units are selling in small quantities, causing psychological factors in the market to be pushed up, especially for gold rings because for a long time gold companies have not been allowed to import raw gold through official channels.

"Not to mention that recently, buying gold has been profitable while other investment channels have been sluggish, causing people to pour more capital into gold, even buying regardless of the price," Mr. Trong said.

Mr. Le Tri Thong, general director of PNJ, suggested that there should be a clear separation between jewelry gold and gold bars - although both are raw gold, their properties and purposes are different.

According to Mr. Thong, if gold jewelry is considered a normal consumer product, gold trading enterprises should be allowed to import raw gold to produce gold jewelry.

"The amount of foreign currency spent to import raw gold to produce gold jewelry is only about 1-2 billion USD/year, compared to the amount of foreign currency spent to import cosmetics, phones, branded bags... it is not worth much," said Mr. Thong, adding that because raw gold has not been imported for many years, despite having great potential, Vietnam's gold jewelry production industry has encountered many difficulties.

According to him, many skilled workers in the industry are moving to other fields. This is a concern because the potential of the skilled labor force in the jewelry industry in Vietnam is not inferior to that of Thailand or Indonesia. Vietnam is fully capable of developing the jewelry industry into a strong export industry.

Need to import raw gold soon

Talking to Tuoi Tre, economic expert Ngo Tri Long said that we should consider solutions for gold imports soon. Because the high domestic gold price is due to the increase in world gold price. In particular, the gap between domestic gold price and world gold price in the past few days has increased to more than 5 million VND/tael because domestic demand is too large compared to supply.

"The State Bank should consider importing gold to help meet part of people's gold buying needs and narrow the gap between domestic gold prices and world gold prices," Mr. Long suggested, adding that the amount of foreign currency used to import gold also accounts for a small proportion compared to the import of other goods.

Mr. Huynh Trung Khanh - Vice President of the Vietnam Gold Trading Association - also said that recently the supply of SJC gold bars has mainly come from the State Bank for stabilization. Meanwhile, due to the increasing price of gold, people are not selling, so the supply is becoming more scarce. Therefore, the management agency needs to allow gold imports.

"The Vietnam Gold Business Association has repeatedly proposed importing raw gold for production to bring to the market, meeting people's needs. If we do not import, I am afraid that gold smuggling will increase, especially when gold prices have fluctuated strongly in recent days, the difference between domestic and world gold prices has increased to about 5 million VND/tael" - Mr. Khanh said.

Expert Tran Duy Phuong said there are two options to increase the supply of raw gold for the market, which are to grant quotas to businesses to directly import gold, or the State Bank to import raw gold and then resell it to businesses. When granted direct gold import quotas, these businesses must report their gold imports to the State Bank for management and supervision.

Allowing the import of raw gold through official channels will help eliminate smuggled gold and make the gold market more transparent. "Once the domestic and international gold markets are connected, if the domestic gold price is higher than the international gold price, businesses will import gold. When the domestic gold price is lower, businesses exporting gold will earn foreign currency," said Mr. Phuong.

Don't buy gold emotionally.

Talking to us, Mr. Nguyen Quang Huy - Faculty of Banking and Finance, Nguyen Trai University - said that no asset increases forever without adjustment. Investors need to stay calm and cautious, avoid rushing into the gold market based on emotions, following the crowd, instead, they should focus on areas that bring long-term and sustainable value.

"Investors need to diversify their investment portfolios and focus their capital on businesses and startups in areas with sustainable growth potential," Mr. Huy recommended, predicting that gold prices could fall sharply when the Russia-Ukraine conflict ends; trade relations between the US and major countries improve... Therefore, investors who buy at the current peak risk large losses in the event of a market reversal.

Mr. Huynh Trung Khanh also advised people not to buy because of crowd psychology, buying to "surf" because the world gold price has increased sharply by 18% compared to the beginning of the year.

"Gold prices will decrease due to profit-taking pressure. Therefore, people need to be very careful. If they want to buy, they can wait for the time when gold prices adjust down," Mr. Khanh advised.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/de-xuat-nhap-khau-vang-de-ha-con-sot-gia-20250320231605843.htm