This year gold made a run to re-reach its highest price ever. Experts say this is due to voracious demand from industry and banking not speculation so the price is unlikely to drop anytime soon.
Here is an interesting article on the "gold chain".
Behind 25-Year High for Gold: Changes From Ground to Market
Technology and Strong Demand Alter Its Odd Economics; Inside a Secret Vault
Trading In Jewelry for Cash
April 12, 2006
The price, in retreat for almost two decades after peaking at $847 in 1980, has more than doubled in the past five years, closing yesterday in New York at $595.20 a troy ounce, near a 25-year high. Purchases by investors jumped more than 25% by weight in 2005 alone.
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Jewelers use more than 70% of gold supplies every year. Italy long was the leading jewelry maker. Lately, lower-cost Turkey has taken a lot of business from Italy, and even-lower-cost India is taking some of Turkey's business. The world's biggest jewelry retail chain is Wal-Mart Stores Inc. But as a nation, India is the world's largest gold-jewelry buyer.
In India and elsewhere in Asia, gold jewelry is used for dowries and major gifts. When people have extra savings, they buy jewelry, which can be sold either in times of need or when prices soar.
Gold also is used in electronics because it is a fabulous conductor. It is present in virtually all computers. Gold's use in dentistry has been falling for years, but last year alone Americans and Canadians had a total of 34 million teeth repaired or replaced with fillings, caps, bridges, crowns and other dental appliances containing gold, according to Dentsply International Inc., a dental supply company. World-wide, dentistry eats up nearly 70 metric tons of gold a year, says GFMS, the research group. All these business uses account for another 15% of yearly gold supplies.
Most of the remaining gold -- 12% to 15% -- goes to private or government investors. Much of that ends up as large rectangular bars weighing 27 pounds or 28 pounds each, the mainstays of government and commercial bank vaults.
When times are good, gold seems a waste of money compared with more modern investments, such as the stocks of fast-growing companies. In troubled times, such as during the recent bear market and following the 2001 terrorist attacks, broader groups of investors stash part of their nest eggs in safer places -- and gold is often seen as such a haven. Some bearish investors, called gold bugs, tend to stick with the metal through thick and thin.
