Sales of Gold-Made Jewelries Slowing Down in Vietnam
The volume of gold used in making jewelry products in the first six months of this year decreased sharply by 16 per cent on-year to 9.7 million tons, figure from the World Gold Council in Vietnam showed.
It is mostly attributed to the current difficulties of the national economy and high gold prices, which have forced consumers to tighten their purse-strings.
Saigon Jewelry Company (SJC), one of the biggest gold importers and distributors in Vietnam, reported no profit increases from jewelry products between January and August despite its sales turnover rising 44 per cent on-year to VND247.37 million in the period.
Higher labor costs and gold material prices are the reasons, source from the SJC said.
Slow sales of jewelry products have been with almost all big gold shops. An owner of a gold shop in HCM City complained that gold jewelry sales were down 30 per cent compared to last year though the wedding season is coming.
Phu Nhuan Jewelry Company (PNJ), meanwhile, has satisfied with business performance with turnover up 26 per cent and profit up 19 per cent through the end of August over the same period of 2007.
However, PNJ’s representative said that consumers are now tending to choose pieces of jewelry with lower gold content to purchase. 10k, 12k and 18k gold jewelry have been the biggest choices recently, accounting for 65-67 per cent of total sales.
Jewelry traders still hope that sales will be better in some days, when the wedding season, the highest sales season in the year for gold traders, comes. (ATPVietnam)
Vietnamese
