China's largest gold jewelry manufacturing and trading hub in Shenzhen has seen a consumer spending spree as the seven-day National Day holiday gets underway, with processing plants at full capacity to catch up with orders.
This year's National Day holiday runs from October 1 to 7. Known as the "Golden Week," the annual holiday is also a peak wedding season nationwide.
In China, gold jewelry is traditionally part of the betrothal gift given by the groom's family to the bride. A lot of soon-to-be married Chinese people have taken advantage of the week off to buy wedding gold at Shuibei area in Shenzhen, in south China's Guangdong Province.
"I have received more than 100 groups of customers today. The turnover has increased about 40 percent, with the customer volume up by 30 percent," said Zhou Jiaxin, a merchant.
Although the international gold price remains high now, the processing fee is much lower at Shuibei market, making it an attractive place for younger consumers who are more sensitive to prices. This, coupled with the large number of shops offering a dazzling variety of designs, makes this area very competitive on a national scale.
During the National Day holiday, tourists from other parts of the country have become the main buyers of gold in this Shenzhen market.
"I took advantage of the holiday to explore this market. I heard that the Shuibei market has a cheaper price and more styles," said a tourist surnamed Su.
Rising prices have also made many gold holders choose to sell their assets at a profit. Many gold recycling shops at Shuibei market said that their business volume increased significantly this holiday season.
"The current recycling volume has increased by 60 percent over the same period last year. The recycling price for gold is 599 yuan (about 85 U.S. dollars) per gram, so people think that recycling is more cost-effective," said Jiang Wenci, a gold dealer.
The surge in demand has meant many jewelry makers are operating at full capacity .
Liu Jiancheng, head of the numerical control workshop at a gold jewelry company in Shenzhen, said that his factory has been extremely busy recently handling the spike in orders for wedding pieces.
"Orders in September were up 50 percent from July and August. The main product category is wedding jewelry, and the orders for "three gold" wedding products (necklace, earrings and ring) account for 70 percent (of the total)," said Liu.
Due to a decline in orders, some small and medium-sized jewelry makers had reduced their manpower earlier this year, but now gold dealers and producers say factories have been working overtime since mid-September.
"During the National Day holiday, the factory is working overtime to catch up with the orders. Our order volume has increased by about 20 percent during the National Day holiday," said Chen Yijie, a shop owner.
Gold jewelry makers have expanded the use of automatic and intelligent machines to improve production efficiency.
China's largest jewelry market sees gold buying spree as National Day holiday gets underway
