Russian gold imports to Hong Kong surge past 2025 record as sanctions reroute bullion to Asia

Russian gold is pouring into Hong Kong at a record pace, highlighting how Western sanctions have rerouted bullion bound for London toward China and other Asian markets.

Hong Kong imported 112.7 tonnes of Russian-origin gold in the first seven months of 2026, according to precious metals investment firm BullionVault's analysis of data from the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department.

Imports have already surpassed the record 92.1 tonnes imported during all of 2025, and compares with just 3.3 tonnes in 2021, before Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The surge underscores how Russia's gold trade has been rerouted since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 shut its producers out of major Western markets, analysts told CNBC.

Russian bullion accounted for almost 15% of Hong Kong's non-monetary gold imports in the first seven months of this year, up from just 0.6% in 2021.

"Hong Kong has emerged as an important hub for Russia-China trade since the full-scale invasion," said Vita Spivak, senior consultant at Gatehouse Advisory Partners. "Most gold goes to Mainland China as it hasn't placed sanctions on Russian gold," she told CNBC.

"For bullion specifically, Hong Kong also offers advantages beyond sanctions circumvention. It provides direct access to the world's largest gold-consuming market," Spivak highlighted.

The London Bullion Market Association suspended all six Russian gold and silver refiners from its Good Delivery lists in March 2022. The U.S., U.K. and other Western countries subsequently imposed restrictions on Russian gold, effectively closing off markets that had previously been major destinations for the country's bullion.

Before the war, Russia's gold industry had become heavily dependent on London. Russian gold exports to the U.K. between 2019 and 2021 were equivalent to around two-thirds of the country's mine production, according to data from BullionVault.

"The fact that Hong Kong's official data clearly shows a steep rise in imports of Russian gold reflects the kind of support and bilateral trade for which Putin has repeatedly thanked Xi," said Adrian Ash, director of research at BullionVault.

"Russian exports of gold to the UK and other Western-sanction nations of course collapsed," Ash added.

Hong Kong is a natural alternative. The city has long served as a gateway for bullion into mainland China, the world's largest gold consumer, and it is rapidly expanding its storage, clearing and trading infrastructure.

"Hong Kong has always been an important entre-pot for gold going into China," said Rhona O'Connell, head of market analysis for EMEA and Asia at StoneX. While Shanghai has taken market share in recent years, Hong Kong is now in "a race with Singapore for hub supremacy and is about six months ahead in terms of infrastructure," she said.

Historically, Hong Kong was the main gateway for China's gold imports, but Beijing has since opened other import hubs including Shenzhen and Beijing, reducing the city's share, according to S&P Global.

The Russian flows are arriving just as China itself is in the midst of a broader gold buying spree.

China has designated gold a "strategic mineral" and has promoted physical bullion as a store of value for households, while the People's Bank of China has continued adding to its reserves.

S&P Global data showed that China's official gold holdings rose by more than 40 tonnes in the first half of 2026, more than double the amount purchased a year earlier.

"We do know that whether it's the PBOC or if it's the Chinese consumers, they've all been buying quite a bit of gold," Charles Chang, Greater China country lead for corporates at S&P Global Ratings, told CNBC in an interview.

"In times of high uncertainty, consumers tend to want to protect their savings, and they find gold as one vehicle for that," he said.