Berlin - German gold dealers are running low on stocks of gold bars and gold coins as customers dump stocks and shares and take refuge in precious metals, a Berlin newspaper said Wednesday. Heiko Ganss, head of the Berlin branch of gold merchant Pro Aurum, told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper that most traders were refusing new orders at the moment.
"Demand is running well above our capacity to supply," he was quoted saying, saying retail banks in Germany were also unable to meet demand.
"Demand has exploded in the past few days," said Stephan Henkel, a gold broker at Umicore, which presses gold bars and coins and puts them on sale. Delivery times were running at two to four weeks.
"Currently, demand is about 10 times what it is at normal times," he was quoted saying by the newspaper.
