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Jewellery sales decreasing dramatically due to high inflation
The current difficulties of the national economy and consumers tightening their purse-strings have led to the sharp decrease of jewellery sales.
According to the World Gold Council in Vietnam, the gold volume used to make jewellery products decreased considerably to 9.7mil tonnes in the first six months of the year, down by 16% over the same period of 2007.
Huynh Trung Khanh, Advisor to the World Gold Council in Vietnam, attributed the decrease of sales to high inflation and high gold prices. Both factors have prompted people to purchase jewellery made of other precious metals, like silver or platinum.
Saigon Jewellery Company (SJC), one of the biggest gold importers and distributors in Vietnam, has reported that its turnover in the first eight months of the year was VND247.37mil, an increase of 44% over the same period of last year. However, the volume of gold sold did not see any increase. The profit the company got also did not increase due to higher labour costs and higher gold material prices.
Big gold shops in HCM City, including ones at Ben Thanh, An Dong and Tan Dinh markets, have also reported slow sales this year. Nguyen Thi Kim Yen, the owner of Bao Tram shop on An Duong Vuong street in district 5, complained that gold jewellery has been selling very slowly with sales down by 30% compared to last year though the wedding season is coming.
Meanwhile, Phu Nhuan Jewellery Company (PNJ) has reported satisfactory business performance with turnover up by 26% and profit up by 19% 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 jewellery with lower gold content to purchase. 10k, 12k and 18k gold jewellery have been the biggest choices recently, accounting for 65-67% of total sales.
Jewellery 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.
VNN
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