On February 14, a reporter from China Securities Journal and China Securities Taurus walked into a large shopping mall in Chengdu. In the jewelry sales area, the Spring Festival preferential activities of major brands are still continuing, and the commodity display cabinets of diamond jewelry are very popular.
Compared with natural diamonds, cultivating diamonds relying on ultra-high cost performance is gradually becoming a new favorite of consumers. Insiders pointed out that under the background of reduced supply of natural diamonds and unabated demand for diamond jewelry consumption, as a substitute for natural diamonds, the cultivation diamond industry is developing rapidly.
diamond consumer demand rebounded
The salesperson of Chow Tai Seng Jewellery Company Limited(002867) exclusive store told reporters: “at present, the company’s diamond series products are all 20% off. In recent years, there are a lot of people buying diamond jewelry, especially during festivals and weddings. Not only girls like it, but also boys wear diamond rings.”
I do brand told the China Securities Journal: “the diamond industry recovered in 2021, with strong retail demand, especially in the second half of the year. China’s total retail sales of diamond and jewelry in 2021 increased by 19% compared with 2020 and 6% compared with 2019. From the performance of the retail market, the industry has gradually recovered from the bottom of 2019 and returned to the rising channel.”
Since 2021, natural diamond miners Alrosa, De Beers, Rio Tinto and Petra diamonds have raised the price of rough diamonds. Soochow Securities Co.Ltd(601555) pointed out that the global diamond demand side consumption recovered significantly in 2021, especially in the United States and China, but the mining supply recovered to a certain extent, but it was far lower than the growth of the demand side. The shortage of supply led to the upstream price increase.
Source: Huajing information network
cultivate diamond with significant price advantage
With the high price of natural diamonds, cultivated diamonds began to enter the vision of consumers. Li Yan (a pseudonym), a consumer who bought cultivated diamond jewelry, told the China Securities Journal: “during the double 11 festival in 2021, I bought a cultivated diamond necklace with a diamond of 30 points. After various preferential activities, the price is about 1300 yuan, which is much cheaper than natural diamonds. There is no difference between the two.”
Cultivated diamond (i.e. synthetic diamond) is a diamond crystal synthesized by scientifically simulating the crystallization conditions and growth environment of natural diamond. From the perspective of product properties, cultivated diamonds and natural diamonds are pure carbon crystals with exactly the same physical, chemical and optical properties. Both cultivated diamonds and natural mineral diamonds belong to real diamonds, which are essentially different from the imitation diamond type of morsonite (carbon silica) and water diamond (cubic zirconia).
On a shopping website, the flagship store selling cultivated diamonds, a one carat diamond ring, costs about 40000 yuan.
According to the data of Huajing information network, the price of cultivated diamonds is anchored by natural diamonds and is the result of a balanced game among consumers, brands and channels. The higher the carat number, the higher the clarity and the better the color, the higher the price of cultivated diamonds. The retail price of cultivated diamond terminal is basically stable at one-third of that of natural diamond.
jewelry brand layout cultivation diamond
In recent years, international well-known jewelry brands have begun to establish their own diamond brands. In May 2018, De Beers announced that it would develop diamond sales through its Lightbox jewelry brand. In July 2018, Swarovski readjusted and optimized its diamond brand Diama from the gem department to the luxury department. In December 2019, signet, the largest diamond jewelry retailer in the United States, also announced the sale of diamond jewelry in its famous brands such as Kay, Jared, Zales and James Allen.
According to the prediction of 2018 global diamond industry report, with the continuous improvement of social economy and consumer level, the average annual growth rate of global cultivated diamond production will remain at 15% – 20%, and the scale of cultivated diamond production will reach 10 million carats to 17 million carats in 2030.
China is the world’s largest diamond producer. At present, China’s diamond production capacity is mainly concentrated in Zhongnan diamond, Henan Huanghe Whirlwind Co.Ltd(600172) , Henan diamond, Henan Liliang Diamond Co.Ltd(301071) and other enterprises.
Dongguan Securities pointed out that in recent years, the penetration rate of global diamond cultivation has increased rapidly. With the continuous improvement of synthetic technology and the cognitive acceptance of the younger generation of consumers, the development of the diamond industry will become more and more mature, and there is a huge space for development in the future. China is the world’s largest producer of cultivated diamonds, mainly using HPHT production method. At present, there are relatively mature enterprises in the upstream core profit link of cultivated diamonds, and the upstream competition pattern is relatively stable, while the downstream brand has not yet formed a mature listed company. Looking forward to the future, domestic cultivated diamond brands are expected to rise.
