Banks in Korea are halting the sales of silver bars amid surging demand, driven by increasing global uncertainties brought by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats, industry officials say.
Lenders also earlier suspended the sales of gold bars, which have emerged as the most popular safe-haven asset in recent months.
Due to the surge in gold and silver prices and the resulting spike in demand, which has outpaced supply, the Korea Minting and Security Printing Corp. halted its supply of gold bars to banks on Wednesday, last week.
The Korea Gold Exchange, for its part, had already suspended bank sales of 10-gram and 100-gram gold bars since October while continuing to sell 1-kilogram bars.
However, with silver bar prices also soaring, the exchange notified banks of the suspension of silver bar supply on Thursday. It also noted that the remaining stock of 1-kilogram gold bars would no longer be available.
The major banks affected by the suspension of silver bar supply are KB Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank, Woori Bank and NH NongHyup Bank. Hana Bank does not sell silver bars.
“As gold prices recently hit record highs, a shortage of gold bars emerged. Consequently, investors turned to silver bars as an alternative, leading to a surge in demand for silver bars,” an official at one of the major banks said.
Some lenders continued selling gold and silver bars by depleting their existing inventory or sourcing from alternative suppliers. However, sales are expected to end soon once their remaining stock is exhausted.
Gold is considered a safe-haven asset and tends to increase in value during periods of political and economic instability.
Following Trump’s election as U.S. president, demand for safe-haven assets has surged, driving prices higher. International gold futures prices have repeatedly hit record highs this year.
On January 30, this website reported that the Bank of England (BoE) was having real trouble satisfying customer demands to withdraw the customer Gold from inside the BoE Vault. Waiting times to receive gold from the BoE went to four weeks, then increased to eight weeks!
Rumors began swirling, wondering of the reason the BoE was taking so long is because they don't have any Gold left?
Last night, word came from Germany that they have been asking the BoE to return Gold held in storage for Germany, and BoE keeps making excuses for not shipping it.
Germany says they have NOT gotten __any__ of their Gold back from BoE.
On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron called an "Emergency Meeting" of European leaders after the United States communicated with Russia directly, concerning Ukraine, and then made clear the US would begin negotiating with Russia to end the Ukraine war.
Miffed by being excluded, Macron decided to call his "Emergency Meeting" but RUMOR in the corridors of power throughout Europe is now claiming this "Emergency" has nothing to do with Ukraine, it allegedly has everything to do with the lack of Gold in European Banks, and the potential catastrophe and collapse that will probably ensue if the public finds out.
Again, this is just a RUMOR, but the fact that Korean Banks have now halted the sale of both Gold and Silver, makes this "RUMOR" seem dangerously plausible.
