U.S. Gold Imports Until June Recorded 5% Decline

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The gold imports by the U.S. registered a decline of 5% during the opening six-month period of 2018. The most recent trade data released by the U.S. Census Bureau suggests that gold imports dropped by 5.14% through June this year to total $5.07 billion. Incidentally, the U.S had imported $5.35 billion worth gold during the first six months of the previous year.

Nearly 34% of all gold imports by the U.S during Jan-June ’18 were from Mexico. The imports from Mexico totaled $1.74 billion, notably higher by 16% when compared with the previous year. The imports from Canada declined by 6% to total $1.01 billion. The other key sources of gold imports by the U.S. were Peru ($909.66 million), Colombia ($313.47 million) and Nicaragua ($194.94 million). The imports from the above top-five markets totaled $4.16 billion, accounting for over 82% of all the gold imports by the U.S.

Meantime, U.S. gold exports registered marginal decline. The Jan-June ’18 exports totaled $10.9 billion, slightly lower by 0.71% when matched with the exports of $10.97 billion during the year-ago period. Also, gold was ranked 13 among various export commodity groupings, U.S. Census Bureau data said.

The top destination of gold exports was the U.K, which accepted almost one-third of all U.S. exports. The exports to that country totaled $3.58 billion. The other key foreign markets were Switzerland ($2.51 billion) and Hong Kong ($2.05 billion).