Royal Canadian Mint: Gold, Silver Product Demand Is ‘Very Strong’!

• Royal Canadian Mint: Gold, Silver Product Demand Is ‘Very Strong’! 
  by Debbie Carlson Kitco News, Wednesday August 14, 2013 
  Demand for the Royal Canadian Mint’s  gold and silver bullion products remains “very strong,” said an  official from the mint on Wednesday.
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  “Year-to-date, after the second  quarter, we’ve had record volume for silver Maple Leafs, the greatest  we’ve had in the over 25 years that we’ve produced them. We’ve seen near-record  volume, only second to 2009, year-to-date, for our gold Maple Leafs,” said  Chris Carkner, managing director, sales, for bullion, refinery and  exchange-traded products at the Royal Canadian Mint.
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  When the mint released its annual  report in May, it also made a special mention of sales volumes for  the first four months of 2013, calling demand “aggressive” at  the time. The mint will release its  second-quarter data at the end of the month.
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  Volatility in the precious metals  markets helped demand, he added.
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  “When prices drop in the  market, then people see it as a buying opportunity,” Carkner told Kitco  News on the sidelines of the American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of  Money.
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  Volumes come primarily from North  America, with solid demand also from Europe and Asia, he added. The heightened demand for  bullion products has left many mints struggling to find supply to produce  coins. That’s not been an issue for the Royal Canadian Mint as it refines its  own gold for coins. “It’s an advantage to being vertically  integrated,” Carkner said.
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  Bullions sales for the year are  still strong, but Carkner declined to forecast trends for the rest of the year,  saying the mint does not speculate on price or volume. He only would say that  they are “optimistic” about volume.
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  The Northern Hemisphere summer is  traditionally a slow time for coin and metal sales, but that’s not the case  this year, he said. That’s following a trend established over the past five to  six years where demand holds up. “That’s because of the extended bull  market,” he said.

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