Buying Silver in Thailand - 1) Bangkok Assay 2) Bowins Silver
There are a lot of gold shops in Bangkok, where you can buy gold jewelry and small gold bars. Now, there are also a lot of silver jewelry shops (a lot on Charoenkrung Road), and there is an active online silver jewelry market. However, finding silver bars for investment in the metal, is another matter. With some effort, we found at least two companies selling Silver Bars in Bangkok : Bangkok Assay of Charoenkrung road, and Bowins Silver on Ramkhamhaeng road.
If you search for it, you may find a silver dealer in Chiang Mai, that can distribute silver bars around Thailand, which we will also mention later.
You can buy a selected choice of silver bars at Bangkok Assay Office on Charoenkrung Road, Bangkok.
1) Bangkok Assay, Charoenkrung Road
By good luck, we found our access to silver on the Asean Now Blog. It appears Bangkok Assay Office on Charoenkrung Road sells and buys back silver bars. However, at present only 500 gram bars are available, besides some very small denominations. We never knew about Assay companies, but apparently these companies can certify the quantity and quality of precious metals like gold, silver, palladium, platina. Besides that, at least in the case of Bangkok Assay they also can sell gold and silver.
The shops is located actually where Suriwong road ends on Charoenkrung road. Thus coming from Silom road, you have to turn right and walk or drive a few hundred meters to reach the shop. Bangkok Assay is also within walking distance from Taksin Bridge BTS station. This part of Charoenkrung is in urgent need of an upgrade. Lots of the shops around the road, whether silver shops or other establishments, seem to not have been painted or otherwise refreshed since buying built decades ago. Even the BTS station at Taksin Bridge, is dark and uninviting.
Bangkok Assay also impresses as a somewhat older enterprise, that has seen better days. (However a picture we saw online of their main office in Samutprakarn is much more impressive, we think most of the assay work is done there). You enter into a front office decorated with gold plated and silver figurines, and there is a counter with a glass partition where you can state your business. No obvious guard is on duty, but it does not seem to be easy to get inside the building with the doors being locked with security codes.
A pair of somewhat better looking silver jewelry shops on Charoenkrung Road.
When you want to buy silver, a senior employee, first goes and checks the price of the silver spot market, calculates the price in Thai Baht, adds 1000 baht, basically for the logo print on the metal, and adds VAT of 7 %. So trade is quite a bit different from trading gold, where you have a very small spread in Thailand between de buying and selling price. On top of the spot price for 1 kg of silver, you pay about 11.2 % extra (depending a bit on the spot price itself). We knew when looking into the silver trade, that this is a common feature. When checking out silver trading prices online on international sites like SD Bullion (U.S.A.) or Kitco (Canada/Hong Kong), you will note that charging add-on costs of 10-15 % seems to be common practice.
Thailand does have a (we think new) silver dealer in Chiang Mai, called Silver Connection, which delivers throughout Thailand. Silver Connection also states on its website that they charge a premium of between 15 and 20 %. This company also offers storage of silver into vaults through an affiliated company. If you want to be fully insured regarding your delivery of silver, you also need to pay extra. Silver Connection is an option, but prices are higher than at Bangkok Assay, or Bowins Silver Group (see below)
When buying silver, it likely is of some benefit to look at charts of price movements the last few days or even hours. We can simply state that it always is more beneficial to buy low, and sell high, than the other way around.
It certainly would be nice to buy silver coins in Thailand. However, we did not find a suitable way to do this. Bangkok Assay Office has silver 1 troy ounce coins on offer. However, the pricing is not attractive. 1 ounce coin (silver value at the time of this article) was priced at about 24 U.S. Dollar by spot price. Coins with a logo stamp and covered in some nice plastic, where sold for 45-50 U.S. Dollar, so there is no investment value here.
Check out the website of Bangkok Assay Office.
This is what you get at Bangkok Assay Office, when buying silver bullion. The logo of the company is displayed on top.
2) Bowins Silver
Our search for silver in Bangkok let us to at least one other company that can provide silver bars for sale. If you do a search with Google, you will be lucky to find Bowins Silver company, which is located in the Ramkhamhaeng area of Bangkok. We walked around there, and must say this is another area of Bangkok that gives quite a dilapidated impression, with lots of construction work around the main road, and not an easy walk for pedestrians.
You may look at their website for the exact address and location, though we truly insist that you call ahead, or send an email before you visit. Otherwise, it will be too much of a surprise for the staff when you suddenly show up ! Located at Ramkhamhaeng soi 24/5, it is very close to Huamark Police station, which you may use to direct a taxi or a bus. By bus Bowins can be reached with bus nr. 137 which makes a loop that passes both Central Rama IX and Ramkhamhaeng road. So use MRT to reach Rama IX station and take it from there (or take a taxi from there).
A brief chat I had when there with an older senior staff member, informed me that the company is mainly catering to the export market. After asking I was informed that the silver bars come from China. The company operates as follows : you order the amount of silver you want by phone, Line, or otherwise. You are quoted the price, based on the spot market price of silver, the Thai Baht exchange rate, and a premium you pay extra. You are instructed to pay a your local bank, send the pay-in slip to Bowins, and your product will be delivered by a courier. At first, we were not too interested. I do not exactly want someone showing up at my condo with a kilo of silver. Word may get around rather quickly. Alternatively, you can order and pick up the silver yourself at the company. I got the strong impression nobody actually does that, but I did, and it was altogether a pleasant experience.
After calculating with the formula elaborated below, and using the present spot price for silver, and the spot exchange price for Thai Baht/US Dollar, we found that an extra 'premium' of about 300 Thai Baht is added to the price. This makes it about 700 baht cheaper per kilo as the price charged at Bangkok Assay. In the case of Bowins Silver, it gives the company a small buffer when trading silver. Suppose you buy silver online at 25,000 baht per kilo, and are told to pick it up the next day, the price may have gone up to 25,500 baht. So the company could operate at a loss, though we think there are arrangements between silver trading companies to hedge this problem.
The Price of Silver
It took us a while to get a feeling about the fluctuation in the silver price in Thailand. You can use this formula for 1 kilo of silver :
((Spot price silver X 32.15 (ounces of silver in one kilogram) X exchange rate Thai Baht/U.S. Dollar) + Premium for Seller) X 1.07 (Value Added Tax).
You should check the spot price of silver at TradingView.com or Kitco.com . You should check the exchange rate at VasuExchange.com . Always use the Bid Price for the silver price and Exchange Rate (the highest value of the 2 values quoted).
Example for formula above : Spot price is 25 U.S. Dollar, Exchange Rate is 33.5 Thai Baht/Dollar, Premium (1000 baht at Bangkok Assay, about 300 baht at Bowins Silver):
((25 X 32.15 X 33.5) + 1000 Thai Baht) X 1.07 = 29,880 Thai Baht.
LBMA certificate
The silver we purchased at Bowins Silver, comes with a LBMA certificate, which basically states that the silver is up to standards for trading on the global OTC market. LBMA publishes a 'Good Delivery List' of companies in different countries. Interestingly in Thailand, a company named Umicore Precious Metals (Thailand) is listed. We did not find any information on their website on how to purchase their products, and got no reply to an email we sent. So likely, this company has no active participation anymore in the silver market, or only operates on the international market.
As stated above, the silver of Bowins Silver reportedly originates in China. There are 21 Chinese companies listed on the 'Good Delivery List' at LBMA, much more than in any other country. Each company supposedly has its own logo on the silver bars produced, but there is no clear such logo on the silver bars of Bowins Silver. Bowins Silver's logo appears instead.