Demand for diamonds in China, Hong Kong continues to rise

If diamonds are girls’ best friend, Chinese girls are now proving this to the diamantaires of the world’s biggest diamond cutting and polishing centre in Surat. While the demand for the sparkling stones is yet to reach its pre-recession level in other countries including the US, China and Hong Kong are queuing up for them.

China bought more diamond from abroad around 70 per cent was exported from India against the financial crisis effect in the first half of 2009. The value of polished diamonds imported into China hit a record high of $300 million in the first half of 2009 registering an increase of 12.7 per cent from previous year.

According to the provisional statistics from the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), the export in the month of February 2010 increased by 54.96 per cent at US$2,252 million compared to US$1,453 million in 2009. About 60 per cent of the diamonds were imported to the key destinations like China and Hong Kong.

“China has become an important market for India, especially for the diamond manufacturing centre in Surat. In the next 10 years, China will become the world’s largest consumer of all jewellery, including diamonds,” said a senior functionary of Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC).

In a recent analysis on the global diamond jewellery demand by Des Kilalea, a senior analyst with the world’s top investment bank RBC Capital markets in Canada, China will double its share of global diamond jewellery demand by 2015 by 16 per cent. However, China will become the second largest diamond consuming market only after US US accounts for about 40 per cent of the total diamond jewellery demand in the world.

Reasoning China’s strong position in the global diamond jewellery market, Kilalea said the cities in China absorb an increasing amount of rural migrants, which is resulting in the increased amount of wealth. This will certainly increase the demand for diamond, particularly for engagement rings. China has overtaken Japan in the precious stone segment and the eagerness of Chinese brides to have diamonds in their wedding bands has helped prices of diamonds to recover after a terrible 2009.

Yet another eye-catching purchase was made last month when the Cullinan heritage diamond, a whopping 507 carat precious stone was sold for $35.5 million to Chow Tai Fook, a large Asian jewellery chain based in China.

The adoption of diamonds in China has happened quite quickly and there was not much of a culture of wearing them until the recent boom. But as China’s population has got urbanised and become more affluent, young women have happily latched on to the old marketing adage that diamonds are forever’.

“The recently concluded Hong Kong international jewellery show was a huge success. The demand for diamond jewellery was driven by the consumers in China, India and other Asian countries,” said Bharat Gosai, a leading diamond manufacturer in the city
courtesy : TimesofIndia.com