News from the JCK show and how it bodes for the Diamond Industry overall

The JCK Show is the Diamond Industry’s premier buying event. It gives the industry players an opportunity to check out and buy products from across the world, observe the latest trends and hobnob with one another. The 2009 show was held at Las Vegas, and coming at a time when the industry is going through turbulent times, the show was the hottest topic of discussion amongst anyone even remotely connected with diamond industry.

Mithun Sacheti, a graduate jeweller gemmologist from GIA and an avid diamond industry watcher was at the JCK Show. He shared with us on how things turned out at the show and gave us insights on how the overall performance will impact industry dynamics in the near future.

Here are the important excerpts of our discussion

Demand, Supply and Prices

In rounds the strongest demand was for 5 carat and above D-IF goods. There is also massive demand for 10 carat goods but they have become extremely scarce and as a results price have shot up to price premium levels. In fancies, pears in 8 carats and above had the highest demand. But thanks to the demand, even these goods are facing a major shortage now.

In pointers, the prices of triple excellent goods are going through the roof – they have gone up by almost 20% in the last one month

Big Winners

In addition to the suppliers who had diamonds to offer at high discounts, the others who had a successful show were people with rare high quality goods. There was also a good market for unique products.

Big Losers

While unique and rare goods were selling well, generic jewellery suffered badly. The major reason for this was price – there was huge gulf in what buyers were willing to pay and what sellers were offering and hence very few deals materialized.

Global Trend

Asia continues to drive global demand in a big way. Mumbai and Hong Kong are generating most of the business worldwide. The Middle-east is also contributing – they have massive requirements for diamonds in very good and good cuts.

Overall the show was a moderate success and things are looking up. The feel good factor is slowly coming back and both buyers and suppliers are optimistic about the future outlook. Hopefully things should be back to normal fairly soon. Sphere: Related Content