Later this week, the Hong Kong International Diamond, Gem and Pearl Show will open in Hong Kong, signaling the start of another year heavily populated by trade fairs. In a month, Baselworld will take place. In four weeks between the close of the show in Hong Kong and the opening of the show in Basel, no less than four important, yet more regional, trade fairs will take place.
The diamond industry is closely associated with a number of other industries, practically all jewelry oriented. Jewelry is set not only with diamonds, but with additional precious gems as well. Just as diamonds and diamond trading calls for a host of industry organizations, so do gems. Chief among them is the International Colored Gemstone Association (ICA).
Consider the following: diamond jewelry sales are not as good as they used to be. The decent margins wholesalers and retailers used to have on diamonds have shriveled. While luxury sales are growing, diamond jewelry sales are losing market share in the category. Consumers are losing interest in traditional diamond jewelry, opting instead for alternatives such as lab grown. Considering all this, my question to the industry is ‘what are we doing to turn this around?’
One of the biggest issues in an industry that deals with high-cost items, is nonpayment by clients. A default can be devastating, if not fatal, to a company that operates with narrow margins. To combat that, a gentleman by the name of J.A. McCloy formed an organization that collects and shares financial information on jewelry companies in 1884. That organization is the Jewelers Board of Trade (JBT).
Prices of smaller goods, one carat and below, completed six months of price increases in January. Larger goods, however, which suffered from price declines late in 2018, continued to decline in January, according to the Mercury Diamond Global Tracker™ (MDGT™). The price changes were just shy of a single point for those that increased in price, while the declines were more dramatic.