In 2022, global gold mining and recycling supplies totaled around 3,100 tons. As documented in Switzerland’s customs data, record amounts were shipped from Swiss refineries to several Asian nations last year.

Swiss refineries shipped 524 tons to China and Hong Kong to supply government and private demand, about 1/6 of total supply for the year. This was the largest quantity the refineries shipped there since 2018. It exceeded 2021’s exports of 354 tons.

Another 188 tons were shipped to Turkey, up from a mere 11 tons in 2021. This was the largest volume exported to Turkey going back at least as far as 2012. Swiss refiners shipped 92 tons to Thailand, up from 56 tons in 2021 and the most in any year since 2013.

The refineries shipped 69 tons of gold to Singapore, more than doubling 2021’s total of 33 tons, once again the highest amount since 2017. Saudi Arabia imported 47 tons last year, a huge increase from the seven tons brought in from Swiss refineries in 2021 and the highest in any year since 2015.

Together, China, Hong Kong, Turkey, Thailand, Singapore and Saudi Arabia took in about 30 percent of gold’s global mining and recycling supplies in 2022.

In the other direction, India imported only 224 tons of gold from Swiss refineries last year, a huge decline from 507 tons in 2021. A major part of the decline was no doubt a result of the sizeable increase in gold import and other taxes last July to 18.45 percent. In December 2022, legal gold imports into India fell 79 percent from December 2021 to the lowest amount imported in December in at least two decades.

The decline of legal imports into India was partly offset by a large increase in gold smuggled into the nation, primarily from the Middle East.

In 2022, the world’s central banks made their largest net purchases of gold reserves since 1967. Between major demand in many Asian nations and strong central bank buying, the price of gold as of the afternoon of Jan. 25 had increased 19.9 percent from its 2022 low COMEX close on Sept. 27.

Patrick A. Heller was honored as a 2019 FUN Numismatic Ambassador. He is also the recipient of the American Numismatic Association 2018 Glenn Smedley Memorial Service Award, 2017 Exemplary Service Award, 2012 Harry Forman National Dealer of the Year Award and 2008 Presidential Award. Over the years, he has also been honored by the Numismatic Literary Guild (including in 2021 for Best Investment Newsletter), Professional Numismatists Guild, Industry Council for Tangible Assets and the Michigan State Numismatic Society. He is the communications officer of Liberty Coin Service in Lansing, Michigan and writes Liberty’s Outlook, a monthly newsletter on rare coins and precious metals subjects. Past newsletter issues can be viewed at www.libertycoinservice.com. Some of his radio commentaries titled “Things You ‘Know’ That Just Aren’t So, And Important News You Need To Know” can be heard at 8:45 a.m. Wednesday and Friday mornings on 1320-AM WILS in Lansing (which streams live and becomes part of the audio archives posted at www.1320wils.com).