Vietnamese gold traders have sent billions of dollars worth of high-grade gold jewellery to be smelted in Switzerland over the past two years to circumvent government restrictions on bullion exports.
Before 2008, Vietnam exported minimal amounts of gold ornaments to Switzerland, which dominates the global gold smelting industry, turning items from rings to candlesticks into international standard bullion.
But that changed over the past two years, as Vietnam became Switzerland’s biggest single source of imported gold products, much of which ended up in the furnaces operated by leading refiners Argor-Heraeus, Metalor, MKS Finance and Valcambi.