Pricey gold has buyers swapping silver for copper and 24K for 18K in Chinese jewellery

China exported more than US$10.2 billion of precious-metal or clad jewellery from January to September 2026, up 17.55%, according to customs data cited by CCTV Finance and republished by China News Service on November 1. Guangdong accounted for US$7.3 billion, up more than 36.54%.

In Shanwei, a Guangdong jewellery processing hub, a company working on customer-supplied materials exported US$6.84 million through September (+69.4%), over 80% of it 14K gold, mainly to the US. Another factory opened a lab-grown diamond line whose shipments grow 10% to 20% a month, and says sales of silver and copper pieces rose 40% to 50%.

Expensive gold and silver changed buying patterns. At one exporter, 18K’s share of shipments fell from 18% to 12%. At a trading company, 60% of clients moved from silver to copper and copper orders grew 50% from January to August. A third of one plating firm’s overseas clients lowered their requirements, mostly from 24K to 18K plating.

Shanwei combines design, manufacturing, polishing and plating, with plants less than five minutes apart, companies say. A Yemeni buyer who ships copper jewellery to the Middle East works with more than 100 factories in the city.

CSP take: the shift to copper and thinner plating is the chain’s answer to metal prices. For demi-fine importers, specifying material and plating thickness in writing and testing samples before the lot avoids surprises. This reading is ours, not the source’s.