CHINA must have a bigger influence on the global gold market being the top consumer of the precious metal, the head of the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) said, as the country targets establishing its own pricing benchmark.

    “We should have gold fixing, pricing done in China itself,” SGE chairman Xu Luode told an industry conference in Singapore yesterday.

    “We need to use the SGE’s international board to implement opening up of the gold market. We need to build China’s influence in the global gold market,” Xu said.

    The SGE, along with exchanges in Singapore and Hong Kong, are launching gold contracts this year in a bid to tap a market looking for a viable alternative to the metal’s global benchmark that is under regulatory scrutiny.

    Xu said the Chinese Government and regulatory agencies are supporting the SGE’s plan for an international exchange in the free trade zone in Shanghai, adding that it will eventually be merged with the main SGE exchange.

    The SGE has received good interest from foreign banks on their participation in the new international exchange, he said.

    Swiss precious metals refiner Metalor Technologies said Tuesday that it will join the international bullion exchange in Shanghai.

    The SGE is targeting launching the new exchange in late September and wants the pricing benchmark to be denominated in yuan, a source familiar with the matter said.

    The price benchmark for gold is the so-called London “fix,” determined by a group of four banks over a teleconference. (SD-Agencies)