MTECHTIPS China April Silver imports down 28% y/y at 172 tons: Barclays

MTECHTIPS:-China April Silver imports down 28% y/y at 172 tons: Barclays

China's silver imports for April were down 28% y/y at 172 tons while exports were up 21.5% y/y at 85.7 tons, keeping the Middle Kingdom a net importer of the metal. Once again, the weakness in silver was across the board, from powder to jewellery with unwrought silver suffering the sharpest decline at 29% y/y with powder imports down 28% y/y Given the investor appetite also remain soft, silver is set to remain significantly oversupplied, Barclays said in a report. In other precious metals, PGM imports were strong, especially for platinum, where jewellery demand has favoured palladium over gold recently. Palladium imports continue to track below year-ago levels, but April’s imports were the strongest since January. Silver was the one area of weakness in China's March trade too; imports were down 25% y/y to 195.98 tons and exports rose by 44% y/y to 109.9 tons keeping China a net importer of silver.