World Of Gems Conference 2017 Proceedings Book

WORLD OF GEMS CONFERENCE V - 9 - SEPTEMBER 2017 als—the younger demographic is already one of the top buyers of jewellery, spending nearly $26 billion in 2015 for luxury goods. The other focus will be women’s self-pur- chases. The majority of about $100M will be spent on the Forever- mark brand and DeBeers Jewellery line but as we have seen in the past, the positive market spinoffs are obvious. Other benefactors splitting about $40 million are the Diamond Pro- ducers Association (DPA) and India’s Gem Jewellery Export Promotion Council. The DPA is also spending $60 million in the next year on their generic diamond advertising “Real is Rare” campaign. As part their latest annual state of the union report, De- Beers studied women and self-purchases and found that women are involved in more than 90% of all diamond jew- ellery sales globally. Lyst an online fashion marketplace that allows users to shop several thousand brands in a single place was quoted recently as saying “the percentage of women compared to men on Lyst who purchase women’s jewelry has increased 14% from 2016 to 2017.” Lyst also found that women make up a whopping 78% of women’s type jewellery purchases. They did find that women are likely to spend less on individual pieces than men, but that they buy up to three times more jewellery. Polished prices have also been in decline squeezing the manufacturing sector into a position of low margins. Pol- ished prices have been in a steady decline for the past thirty-three months with the last major price increase in November of 2014. The traditional model of not too long ago where rough and polish rise and decline in parallel synchronicity is over; that’s where each market moves in tandem and gains and loses more or less based on de- mand and inventory levels. While producers most cer- tainly pay attention to what polish sells for we are finding more and more that producers are pushing rough prices to a point of major resistance from the market then they pull back just a little and wait for polish prices to self-ad- just. Lately the polished market is trying to play catch-up but stops short which creates the squeeze between rough cost and polished values. This lack of a reciprocal upward movement in the value of polish can be partly attributed to a general oversupply of polish in India and to stagnant worldwide demand. Unlike in the past, producers are now squeezing margins on rough to satisfy their banks and shareholders first, and then expect the polish market to react accordingly. Heading into the fall and Christmas season, the North Amer- ican outlook for diamond jewellery is generally positive with the multiples currently experiencing flat sales and USA inde- pendents having a noticeable increase in sales. Well-made fancy shapes under 0.70 carats are performing well in SI+ J+ with ovals and pear shapes the top performers with the princess cut market flat. u “There are two kinds of diamonds in this world: The diamond itself and the eyes full of love!” – Mehmet Murat İldan “Strengthening the demand for diamond jewellery, and reinstating diamond as an emotional symbol is necessary for a stable existence and development of our industry,” Sergey Ivanov, president of Russian mining giant Alrosa DIAMOND MARKET