SJC stops buying dented gold bars, one word

SJC refuses to buy dented and warped gold pieces.

In recent days, many people holding one-letter gold bars (a series with a letter before the number, produced before 1996) are worried because Saigon Jewelry Company (SJC) has temporarily stopped buying.

A female customer in Phu Nhuan District (Ho Chi Minh City) said that last weekend, she brought two taels of gold bars to SJC Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Store (District 3) to sell but was refused. The staff there said that her gold was of the single-letter variety and the company was considering stopping buying this type.

"Only today did I know that SJC has two different types. My gold is just the old type, stamped according to the previous model, but it is still gold sold by SJC, so why is there such a distinction?" she wondered.

The same situation also happens with two-letter gold bars (the serial number consists of two letters before the number, processed later) but they are dented.

Mr. Thanh (District 4, Ho Chi Minh City) called the hotline of an SJC store to ask to sell a dented two-letter gold bar, but the staff said that the company was also temporarily stopping buying this type of gold. When asked about the time of buying again, this person said he was not sure and told the customer to wait.

Not only SJC, some other businesses like PNJ also do not buy single-letter gold. As for the two-letter type that is dented, the company said it will decide whether to buy it back or not based on the actual appraisal at the store.

Explaining the reason for refusing the transaction, an employee at SJC Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, District 3, said that the company still had about 1,000 taels of gold in stock that had been purchased in the past two months. Currently, SJC has not been allowed by the State Bank to open a gold processing and re-stamping workshop.

"The above stock of gold bars cannot be sold on the market. Therefore, when the above stock is completely cleared, the company can buy gold from people as usual," this person said.

An SJC leader said that previously, when the company had collected about 1,000 taels, it would ask the State Bank to process them and then allow them to trade again on the market. But now the inventory has exceeded 1,000 taels and the company has not been granted a gold stamping quota, so it has had to temporarily stop purchasing these types.

"We understand that customers are at a disadvantage. But the business itself is not clear about the policy, so if it takes the risk of buying too much, it will be risky," this representative explained.

At a press conference in mid-May, Ms. Le Thuy Hang - General Director of SJC - said that according to Decree 24, the company is not allowed to stamp gold bars from raw gold. All stamping molds are handed over to the State Bank for management. This enterprise is only allowed to re-stamp dented gold according to the annual quota. SJC leaders also repeatedly said that the handling of dented gold is strictly controlled by the State Bank in all stages, sending a monitoring team to check before SJC opens the mold to stamp dented gold.

This is not the first time SJC has stopped buying deformed, one-letter gold. This situation happened in 2012, 2015 and 2016. At that time, in addition to the reason that there was no processing limit, this unit also said that the market differentiated between two types of gold bars, one-letter and two-letter. The one-letter product line was not of interest to consumers, they were only sold and not bought. Gold shops also refused, so only SJC purchased and reprocessed them into two-letter gold bars. At that time, SJC also said that if the limit was not granted, the large inventory would cause capital imbalance and potentially lead to many risks.

In 2012, Decree 24 was issued to completely deal with the "goldenization" of the economy. Since then, the State Bank has monopolized the production of gold bars, choosing SJC - the unit that accounts for over 90% of the gold bar market share - as the national brand. From 9 licensed gold bar brands, the market has only one legal type to this day.

Analysts say that Decree 24 has had many results in stabilizing the gold market, but over time, it has revealed some shortcomings. Therefore, the management agency needs to amend Decree 24, including considering the option of removing the monopoly on SJC gold bars. The State Bank still holds the right to actively regulate the gold market by granting production quotas to enterprises, based on monetary policy objectives in each period.

TH (according to VnExpress)

Source: https://baohaiduong.vn/sjc-ngung-mua-vang-mieng-mop-meo-mot-chu-389184.html