Important BullionStar Update: 11 March 2022

We are currently experiencing very high demand for our investment precious metals products and limited availability on some bullion products.

Order Volume and Customer Orders

Currently at BullionStar we are seeing a very large increase in order volumes, customer visits, and customer calls and emails, and our staff members are working diligently to serve all clients.

For the period 2 March to 8 March, BullionStar’s weekly revenue has increased by 546% compared to the same period one month ago (2 February to 8 February).

The average order size in March has increased 343% so far compared to February, and the median order size has increased 206% in the same timeframe. We have also noted a significantly larger percentage of orders originating from international customers, which indicates that more international savers and investors are now moving into precious metals and / or increasing their allocations to precious metals. Orders for vault storage in our vault in Singapore have also been correspondingly higher.

We have implemented a minimum customer buy order of SGD 249, or equivalent in other currencies. There is no minimum customer sell order size.

Bullion Inventory & Availability

Right now we are seeing some strains in the global bullion supply chain from mints and refiners to bullion wholesalers and retailers, with some suppliers sold out of some products and having difficulty in replenishing, especially for silver coins.

However, BullionStar has a strategy of holding substantial inventory depth and a buffer reserve inventory, because our strategy is based on being prepared for monetary and political crises, and on increasing precious metals stock levels in anticipation of industry shortages.

Therefore, we continue to have inventory in most products despite the very high demand we are seeing in our shop and showroom, and online.

BullionStar also only sell metals which we have in stock, have purchased from or been already produced by suppliers, are on route to us, or that we buy back from clients. You can view the real-time availability status of our products on our website. All metals indicated as “In Stock" are available for immediate release/delivery.

Developments in the Market

In the last few weeks, the world has witnessed a sharp increase in geo-political and financial market risk, and a rush of investors into safe havens and real assets, including gold and silver.

Inflation is back and at a 40 year high, and commodity prices, which were already rising due to inflation, have now spiked even higher due to commodity availability concerns following sanctions imposed on Russia and Russia’s reaction to those sanctions.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine beginning 24 February, the price of gold has risen strongly, and this week the international gold price touched near an all time high. Likewise, silver has been trading strongly with the international silver spot price now up double digits percentage gain year-to-date. Amid these price moves, there has also been increased price volatility.

In the current environment, savers and investors across the world are increasing their allocations to physical precious metals, as a safe haven and financial insurance, and as wealth preservation and an inflation hedge. This often happens during geo-political and financial crises, and is happening again right now.

Even in these unprecedented times of geo-political risk, monetary debasement and multi-decade high inflation, the international spot prices of gold and silver still do not reflect the unfolding systemic risks nor are they reflecting the ‘on the ground’ physical precious metals demand – supply realities that we see.

This is because price discovery in gold and silver is still unfortunately controlled by the fractional-reserve paper markets of the LBMA and COMEX and the trading of vast quantities of paper gold and paper silver by the dominant investment banks / bullion banks active in these venues.

However, as we are seeing in some commodity markets such as nickel, the current geo-political environment can quickly overwhelm markets which do not honour contracts, or venues which fail to deliver physical, and this could easily spread to the unallocated markets of the LBMA and COMEX, causing a disconnect between the physical precious metals markets and their paper counterparts.