TOKYO, Dec 26: Japan’s gold exports have doubled this year as individual investors locked in profits after gold prices soared earlier in the year, but retail demand for bullion has been picking up steadily over the past few months.

Industry sources say the rise in retail demand for gold may turn Japan into a net importer again, but that may not happen immediately as many players are still looking to unload their gold holdings when prices recover.

Japan was a net importer of gold in October for the first time this year as investors bought on a plunge in prices, but exports exceeded imports again in November, finance ministry data showed on Friday.

In the eleven months to November, Japan’s exports of unwrought solid gold, gold bars and sheet totalled 393.9 tons, up from 174.9 tonnes in 2007.

In November alone, Japan exported 47 tons of gold, rising more than five-fold from October, while imports more than halved to 4.1 tonnes from the previous month.

A Tokyo-based trader said the rise in exports last month may have been related to spot gold prices rebounding above $800 an ounce after falling to near $680 in late October.

There were still many people who hadn’t sold” the trader said, referring to a wave of selling after spot gold prices hit a record high of $1,030.80 an ounce in March.

But he noted that in Japan, premiums on spot gold rose by asmuch as about $2 when gold prices dipped below $700, reflecting strong demand from Japanese individual investors.

Gold is an asset with value more than zero and is also regarded as a type of savings in times of economic deterioration, he said.

Some of the gold individual investors sell to bullion houses is recycled for industrial and jewellery use in Japan, but the remaining bulk is sold via Singapore and other trading centres to the rest of the world.

—Reuters