Cbank tells SJC to correct 1.7 ton gold bars in 1 month

August 26, 2012 | 20:41

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Saigon Jewelry Co, the country’s largest gold trader and producer of gold bullion bearing the most popular brand name SJC, has been granted around a month to convert deformed gold bars into normal ones, and those of other brands into SJC bullion, the State Bank of Vietnam said in a statement Friday.

This illustrative photo shows a couple of deformed SJC gold bullion

“SJC will have to convert some 1,735 kg (46,200 taels) of deformed gold bars in a period between August 25 and September 30,” company CEO Le Hung Dung told reporters.

“Of these, there are some 800kg of deformed SJC bars.”

Phu Nhuan Jewelry said it will ask to have around 1,000 taels of PNJ and deformed SJC gold bars converted into standardized SJC bullion.

The above period is also given to convert gold bars of other brands [not deformed] into SJC bullion, said Dung, adding the company has yet to acquire the official statistics on how many bars fall in this category [not deformed].

Dung also said that the company will only need two days, from August 25 – 26, to modify the misshapen bars.

“After that, we will reproduce non-SJC gold bullion into our brand,” said Dung, adding the company can only manage to convert some 2,000 taels a day.

Prices slump

Gold prices in Vietnam immediately slipped after the conversion task was announced by the central bank.

At the closing session of August 23, the precious metal lost VND200,000 a tael compared with the opening, and continued to drop by VND550,000 when it opened the following day, settling at VND43.9 million a tael.

SJC gold bars closed Friday at VND44.2 million a tael, some VND2 million higher than global price.

“The regulation on converting deformed gold bullion and non-SJC gold bars have cooled down buying demand,” said Nguyen Cong Tuong, deputy head of SJC’s sales department.