Fashion
Gold demand hit records as price soared: industry data
By
AFP
Published
October 30, 2025
Demand for gold hit a record high in the third quarter as the the precious metal’s price hit all-time highs on geopolitical unrest, industry data showed Thursday.
Total demand grew three percent year-on-year in the July-September period to 1,313 tonnes, the World Gold Council said, as the metal perceived as a safe haven investment benefitted from the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Gaza conflict.
That was the highest level of demand by volume since the WGC began compiling such records around 25 years ago.
“Various regional conflicts, the increasing rhetoric around trade conflicts, all of that combines really to just create this atmosphere of heightened uncertainty” and boost demand for gold, WGC analyst Louise Street told AFP.
A surge in buying, driven by central banks, coincided with gold’s price striking record after record this year.
However since the metal struck an all-time peak in October of $4,381.52 an ounce, it has fallen heavily on profit taking.
Gold demand by value surged 44 percent year-on-year to a record $146 billion in the third quarter, the WGC added in its report.
The US government shutdown and expectations of more cuts to Federal Reserve interest rates, which is weighing on the dollar, have lent additional support to gold’s price in recent months according to analysts.
There has been strong demand for gold via Exchange-Traded Funds on stock markets. ETFs allow investment without trading on the gold futures market.
The high-price environment has, however, dampened jewellery demand, according to the WGC.
It dropped 23 percent to 419.2 tonnes in the July-September period, the lowest third quarter since 2020 when the Covid pandemic took hold around the world.
Street called gold’s recent retreat to around $4,000 an ounce “a healthy correction… that helps to wash out some of that more frothy, perhaps short-term speculative positioning”.
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Italy confirms its position among the world leaders in the textile machinery sector, thanks to a solid and highly specialized production system. The industry stands out for its strong international vocation, with a predominant share of production destined for foreign markets (86% of its sales) and a consolidated presence in over 130 countries. This places the country among the top global exporters of textile technology, renowned for its quality, innovation, and reliability.
In the first eleven months of 2025, sales in Germany have already reached 81 million euros. Among the most requested technologies, accessories stand out (36%), followed by finishing machinery (33%)—the latter being essential for the production processes of the most innovative textile sectors.
Italy’s textile machinery sector will showcase advanced, customised technologies at Techtextil 2026 in Frankfurt, reinforcing its global leadership.
With 86 per cent exports across 130+ countries and €81 million (~$93.71 million) sales in Germany, innovation-driven SMEs and strong demand for accessories and finishing machinery continue to drive growth in technical textiles.
The strength of Italian textile machinery lies in its dynamic structure, composed of small-to-medium-sized companies that are heavily oriented toward Research & Development. This flexibility allows Italian manufacturers to collaborate closely with end-users, transforming customer needs into highly personalized and versatile technological solutions.
“The growing demand for innovative textiles across various industrial fields is further consolidating our manufacturers’ position,” emphasizes Marco Salvadè, President of ACIMIT. “At Techtextil 2026, the Italian offering will once again demonstrate how the combination of high technology and customization capabilities is the key to meeting the challenges of the technical textiles sector.”
Italian expertise, rooted in historic districts such as Bergamo, Biella, Brescia, Como, Milan, Prato, and Vicenza, continues to guarantee standards of quality and reliability that make Made in Italy a point of reference for the entire global industry.
Note: The headline, insights, and image of this press release may have been refined by the Fibre2Fashion staff; the rest of the content remains unchanged.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (MS)
Cold-chain infrastructure remains limited, with around 8,815 storage facilities and a capacity of 40.21 million metric tonnes, the March 2026 report, titled ‘Transforming India’s logistics ecosystem’, noted.
Despite India’s national average logistics cost being down to 7.97 per cent of GDP from 14 per cent earlier, several regions face significantly higher logistics costs due to uneven infrastructure and connectivity, a FICCI-Grant Thornton report said.
Cold-chain infrastructure remains limited.
Non-standard warehousing causes delays, higher costs and inconsistent supply-chain performance, it noted.
As planning was historically fragmented across departments, deep alignment gaps remain.
Non-standard warehousing causes delays, higher costs and inconsistent supply-chain performance, it remarked.
Due to cold chain imbalance and reefer underuse, state-level demand mismatches persist, while refrigerated transport remains significantly underutilised nationwide.
Persistent structural challenges include fragmented infrastructure and limited multimodal integration; continued dependence on road-based freight due to coordination gaps across transport modes; limited adoption of automation; and labour-intensive warehousing and logistics operations, resulting in higher error rates, longer turnaround times and limited scalability, according to the report.
Technology is becoming central to logistics planning and execution, with artificial intelligence-driven demand forecasting and routing, digital twins for warehouse and network design, and IoT-enabled visibility across storage and transport improving decision making, the report added.
Control tower models are enabling real-time coordination and faster response to disruptions, while platforms like ULIP provide the digital backbone for interoperable, multimodal logistics, the report mentioned.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
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