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February 20, 2012 at 06:01 AM
High demand for gold has already resulted in the building of new vaults or expansion of old ones as investors in a flight to safety have accumulated stores of the precious metal. While gold has yet to climb again to the heights it reached in 2011, it is still popular, particularly in Asia–and vaults are having to find more places to put it.
Bloomberg reported that Hong Kong-based Malca-Amit Global Ltd., which stores and transports diamonds and precious metals, will be opening a new vault in China later in the year and will also be expanding an existing facility in Singapore.
The new China vault will be located at the Beijing airport, according to Ofer Wilner, regional manager of the Far East unit, and will open by the end of the year. Meanwhile, expansion at the Singapore FreePort facility, currently consisting of two vaults that are 80% full, should be completed in six months and will add three more vaults at a cost of $2 million.
Other companies, from banks such as Deutsche Bank to secure storage facilities such as The Brink’s Co., have already jumped on the expansion bandwagon as demand for the metal continues. The World Gold Council reports that China may beat out India as the world’s largest gold market in 2012.
