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China, the world’s top gold producer and one of the biggest consumers, launched Tuesday a yuan-denominated gold price fix in an attempt to become a global price-setter for the precious metal.
The gold benchmark launched by the Shanghai Stock Exchange is based on a 1 kilogram-contract and was set at 256.92 yuan. It is set twice a day based on a few minutes of trading by 18 trading members, Bloomberg reports.
Unlike trading on the Shanghai Gold Exchange, which provides a platform for participants in the bourse, the new fix price can be used as a reference for all suppliers and buyers of gold to settle their transactions.
Analysts believe the new fix won’t have an immediate impact on global pricing benchmarks in London and New York.
The 12 fixing members include 10 Chinese banks and two foreign banks – Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, China Minsheng Bank, Industrial Bank, Ping An Bank, Bank of Shanghai, Standard Charted Bank (China) and Australia and New Zealand Bank (China).
The other six companies – China National Gold Group Corp, Shangdong Gold Group, Shanghai Lao Feng Xiang, Chow Tai Fook, Bank of China (Hong Kong) Ltd and MKS (Switzerland) SA – take part in the benchmark as reference price members.
The goal for China is to boost its influence in global commodities and currency markets while trying to make the yuan a viable competitor to the US dollar.
Analysts believe the new fix won’t have an immediate impact on global pricing benchmarks in London and New York, but a fully convertible Chinese yuan is likely to give Beijing more pricing power on the bullion industry.
3 Comments
TakisV
Will effectively decouple yuan from currency basket and will create a gold based yuan value ???
Sean Swann
R.I.P. CRIMEX and LBMA , THE SHANGAI GOLD EXCHANGE IS BORN. The RMB (renminbi or yuan) replace de US dollar. The purpose of China is to replace its reserves of foreign currencies into gold and silver reserves.
First Person
Something fairly significant that could occur for the US would almost immediately put this into play.