Falling prices, low consumer trust, imports issues for lab-grown diamond: GTRI

New Delhi: India’s lab-grown diamond industry is facing challenges such as significant fall in prices, eroding consumer interest and competition from imports, think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said Sunday, adding said that though India faces the issue of production overcapacity, it continues to import in large amounts and this issue needs deeper investigation.

To address these challenges, the government needs to take certain steps such as setting clear and consistent rules to standardize quality, certification, and market practices; issuing a Quality Control Order to check quality of imports; and investment in research and development to improve production processes, reduce costs, and enhance the quality of lab-grown diamonds.

As per the report, India’s lab-grown diamond industry is facing a major challenge, with prices falling by 65% in the past year to Rs 20,000 per carat from Rs 60,000 due to local overproduction and oversupply from abroad, which points to problems like overproduction, high imports, and lack of regulation. The number of units producing lab-grown diamonds in India has increased to 10,000 units, leading to over supply and tougher competition.

The industry lacks clear regulations checking such practices, making it hard to ensure quality. Lack of proper certification, and low trust market operations could slow down the industry’s growth, according to GTRI founder Ajay Srivastava.

He added that 98% of India’s imports of rough lab-grown diamonds come from Hong Kong (63.7% or $728.2 million) and the UAE (28.5% or $326 million).

In FY24, India imported rough lab-grown diamonds worth $1.14 billion and exported cut and polished ones worth $1.3 billion.

Natural diamonds cost around Rs 3.5 lakh per carat and this price drop is making it difficult for manufacturers to repay loans taken for purchasing lab-grown diamond making machines, putting them under financial strain, GTRI said.

Source: DCLA

Lab Grown Diamonds Market Projected to Hit $59.5 Bn by 2032 with Strongest Growth in Asia Pacific Region

According to Vantage Market Research the Global Lab Grown Diamonds Market Size is expected to reach a value of USD 27.2 Billion in 2023. The Lab Grown Diamonds Market is projected to showcase a CAGR of 9.1% from 2024 to 2032 and is estimated to be valued at USD 59.5 Billion by 2032.

The lab-grown diamonds market has emerged as a formidable force within the diamond industry, captivating consumers with its ethical and sustainable approach to creating stunning gemstones. Unlike mined diamonds, which are extracted from the earth through an environmentally impactful process, lab-grown diamonds are meticulously crafted in controlled laboratory environments.

This innovative technology replicates the natural diamond formation process, resulting in stones with the same physical, chemical, and optical properties as their mined counterparts. The burgeoning lab-grown diamond market is fueled by a confluence of factors, including rising environmental consciousness, evolving consumer preferences, technological advancements, and increasing disposable incomes.

Read more: Einnews

De Beers Will Quit Growing Diamonds for Jewelry

De Beers Group announced late last week that it will be suspending production of diamonds for jewelry at its Lightbox factory in Gresham, Oregon, pivoting instead to industrial diamonds for technology applications.

The company made the announcement Friday, in the midst of the Las Vegas jewelry trade shows.

The lab-grown pivot is part of a broader new strategy called “Origins,” which is designed to grow desire for natural diamonds while cutting costs.

In an interview with National Jeweler on Friday, De Beers CEO Al Cook elaborated on the decision, including on the future of Lightbox, the lab-grown diamond jewelry brand De Beers launched six years ago.

“Element Six used to produce diamonds because they were hard and they could be used industrially,” he said. “Now, with the price of synthetic diamonds coming down, it opens up this amazing set of technological activities. We’re in partnership with … a number of high-tech companies looking at how you use diamonds as components in the digital era.

“That bit for us is really exciting. And that’s where the future of synthetic diamonds lies for us.”

Despite the transition at the factory, Cook said Lightbox will continue as a brand, drawing upon existing stock for the immediate future.

“At the moment, we’ve got a lot of stones available to Lightbox. Production will continue for a few months to ensure that they’ve got a stock of beautiful lab-grown diamond stones they can sell.”

After Lightbox depletes its existing stock, “we’ll see where the brand goes and we’ll see what happens,” Cook said. “I think it’s too early to say.”

De Beers announced the launch of the Lightbox lab-grown diamond brand during the Las Vegas shows in 2018.

At first, De Beers was growing the diamonds for Lightbox at its Element Six facility in the United Kingdom.

In October 2020, it opened its $94 million Lightbox factory in Gresham, a Portland suburb.

In an attempt to control the direction of the lab-grown diamond market, De Beers set an $800/carat price structure for the line.

It also marketed Lightbox as jewelry for less-special special occasions, like Sweet 16s or graduations, not milestones like engagements or anniversaries, which, it posits, should be celebrated with natural diamonds.

Since the line’s launch six years ago, lab-grown diamond prices have dropped precipitously. Lightbox cut its prices by as much as 40 percent last month.

Cook said De Beers expects the trend to continue.

“For a lot of retailers out there, the incentive to sell natural [diamonds] and the incentive to sell lab-grown are reversed. There was a period of time, a year-plus ago, when retailers got more of a margin sometimes from selling lab-grown diamonds.

“They were cheap to manufacture, and they could be sold as near-equivalents to natural diamonds. We didn’t do that in De Beers Group. We made very clear through Lightbox that these were two entirely different propositions,” he said.

“Not everyone followed our approach. It is now very clear that for all the retailers I can speak to here at JCK, the margin you get by selling a natural diamond is far greater than the margin that you get by selling a lab-grown diamond. It’s also clear that the gap is going to grow rather than shrink. We expect the price of lab-grown diamonds to go down and down, to continue collapsing.”

As it transitions production at the Lightbox factory in Gresham, De Beers announced Friday that it also will be consolidating its Element Six chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond-growing facilities, going from three factories to the one factory in Oregon.

Source: DCLA

AGTA Bans Lab-Grown Diamonds, Gemstones at GemFair

The American Gem Trade Association announced that, starting at Tucson next year, exhibitors will not be allowed to sell lab-grown diamonds or colored gemstones at the AGTA GemFair.

National Jeweler received a news release on AGTA’s decision via email Wednesday morning. The release also was posted on the AGTA website, though it had been removed by Wednesday evening.

AGTA CEO John W. Ford Sr. said the news release was “pulled by error,” and would be reposted today.

According to the release, AGTA’s new rule bans the display of loose gemstones or jewelry “comprising non-natural gemstones, ones that are man-made, synthetic, or lab grown.”

AGTA said its dealers can still sell lab-grown gems if they are disclosed, but only natural gems can be made available for purchase at GemFair.

The association said it enacted the ban to “thwart potential confusion,” confusion it sees happening in the lab-grown diamond industry and fears will affect the colored gemstone industry, even though lab-grown colored stones have been around for more than a century.

When asked what led to the belief that confusion was occurring, or could occur, in the colored gemstone market, Ford said in an email to National Jeweler, “Look no further than the chaos created by synthetics in the diamond industry … Our action is also in response to considerable concerns voiced by AGTA membership in relation to the adverse effects that synthetics could also potentially cause in the colored gemstone industry.”

While the AGTA’s decision has made headlines, it does not seem poised to have a big impact on AGTA GemFair exhibitors, few of whom sell lab-grown gemstones anyway.

In his email, Ford said out of the 260 exhibitors of loose or set gemstones at the 2024 AGTA GemFair Tucson, only two list that they sell synthetic gemstones in the AGTA Source Directory.

“Since sending out over (260) 2025 AGTA GemFair Tucson renewals, we’ve had an overwhelmingly positive response from the vast majority of our exhibitors, greatly outweighing any negative responses,” he said.

Related stories will be right here …

In its news release, AGTA also noted that lab-grown gemstones lack the value inherent to natural gemstones, which are rare and sometimes inimitable.

“AGTA felt that it needed to be crystal clear to buyers that when they attend an AGTA show, they know that they are only shopping mined natural gems from the earth,” said Kimberly Collins, AGTA board president and owner of Kimberly Collins Colored Gems.

“AGTA dealers pride themselves in sourcing superior gems that are rare, beautiful, and natural.”

AGTA also notes that “synthetic gems are not minerals.”

The association said it recognizes two definitions of the word “mineral”—that of the British Geological Survey, defining a mineral as “a naturally occurring substance with distinctive chemical and physical properties, composition, and atomic structure” and that of the U.S. Geological Survey, which defines a mineral as a “naturally occurring inorganic element or compound having an orderly internal structure and characteristic chemical composition, crystal form, and physical properties.”

“The definitions are essentially the same, but the keyword in both that is important is use of the word ‘natural,’” said AGTA board member John Bradshaw.

“It’s important to indicate that synthetic gems are not considered minerals, because minerals are natural, and synthetics are not.”

Source: Nationaljeweler

UK synthetic diamond firm told ads cannot describe diamonds as ‘real’

Ads for synthetic diamond jewellery have been banned after the UK company behind them, Skydiamond, did not make it clear they were not real.

Even though the strapline of the newspaper advert was the “world’s first and only diamond made entirely from the sky” and a social media ad said “love is… a diamond gift made from the sky”, there were complaints from the National Diamond Association.

The advertising regulator upheld the complaints and concluded that the ads were misleading and said they could not appear again in the same form, including on the company’s website without, better explanation.

Skydiamond, the trading name for The Sky Mining Company Ltd, was told by the Advertising Standards Authority not to use the terms “diamonds”, “diamonds made entirely from the sky” and “Skydiamond”, and not to describe its synthetic products “without a clear and prominent qualifier”.

The firm was told by the ASA that it must use terms such as ‘synthetic’, ‘laboratory-grown’ or ‘laboratory-created’, “or another way of clearly and prominently conveying the same meaning to consumers” and were not to use the claim “real diamonds” to describe synthetic diamonds.

Sky Mining said both the ads and extensive information and graphics on its website set out that their diamonds were manufactured in a laboratory, with detailed information on the production process on its website.

The company said the very brand was built on the premise that their diamonds did not come from the earth and do not have the negative environmental impacts associated with diamond mining, with all components required sourced from the sky: atmospheric carbon dioxide (as a source of carbon), rainwater (as a source of hydrogen) and renewable energy from solar and wind power.

As explained on the company’s website, Skydiamonds are made from carbon dioxide and hydrogen extracted and produced using proven industrial processes and combined to form methane in a biological process, with methane fed into chemical vapour deposition machines in which diamonds developed at a high temperature over 14 days.

It says for every carat of Skydiamond produced, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by 99.79% compared to mined diamonds, and that compared to growing diamonds in a laboratory, mined diamonds produce 4,383 times more waste, use 2.14 times the energy and 6.8 times as much water.

The ASA acknowledged that further information on the Sky Mining manufacturing process appeared on About Us pages of the website among other pages.

“However, in the absence of a clearly worded and prominent qualification such as ‘synthetic’, ‘laboratory-created’ or ‘laboratory-grown’, or another way of clearly and prominently communicating the same meaning, we considered it was still ambiguous as to whether the diamonds were synthetic or not,” the regulator said.

Source: DCLA