Platinum draws fresh interest from China's jewelers as gold prices test buyers' wallets

Huileng Tan

Wed, Jun 18, 2025, 4:09 AM 4 min read

• Chinese jewelers are increasing platinum imports due to declining gold jewelry sales.

• Gold prices hit record highs, deterring Chinese buyers despite their cultural attachment to gold.

• Platinum's lower price makes it an appealing investment, but gold still dominates.

Chinese jewelers are snapping up platinum as they seek to bounce back from a slump in gold jewelry sales, an industry group said.

Surging gold prices, which hit a record high above $3,500 an ounce in April, have deterred even buyers from China, who have a cultural attachment to the yellow metal.

In the first quarter of the year, gold jewelry sales in China tanked nearly 27% from a year ago to 134.5 tons, according to the China Gold Association.

Meanwhile, gold bar and coin consumption surged nearly 30%, showing that investor demand for haven assets remains strong.

"Jewelry fabricators and distributors are trying to save themselves because gold jewelry sales are falling off a cliff. They need to find a new metal for jewelry so that they can survive," Weibin Deng, the regional head for Asia Pacific at the World Platinum Investment Council, told Business Insider.

China imported 11.5 metric tons of platinum in April, its highest monthly intake in a year.

That demand has helped push global platinum prices up around 40% year-to-date, with spot prices near $1,265 per ounce. Spot gold prices have also surged, up roughly 30% over the same period.

The price of platinum is still about one-third of gold, making the white precious metal a compelling proposition for Chinese consumers. In China, jewelry is generally priced by weight rather than on a per-piece basis, said Deng.

"It cannot be too expensive, otherwise people wouldn't buy it," he said of the price-sensitive Chinese market.

Goldman Sachs analysts wrote on Tuesday that platinum's blistering rally lacks fundamental support. They said the metal's issues include price-sensitive Chinese demand, slowing auto demand, and the expectation that there will be no significant decline in supply.

The analysts attributed strong gains in the platinum market to speculative demand and high gold prices, which are keeping investors away from trading in the yellow metal.

"This hesitancy likely stems from investors believing they missed the initial rally," wrote the Goldman analysts, referring to the blistering gold rally earlier.

"Instead, interest has shifted to other precious metals as investors seek catch-up opportunities," they wrote.

The WPIC is stepping up marketing and public education to position platinum as a precious metal that has investment value and room to run, Deng said.