Editor’s Note
This article examines the dual pressures reshaping the global diamond market: shifting cultural trends in key consumer regions and the disruptive rise of lab-grown alternatives. The reported 40% wholesale price drop highlights a significant industry inflection point.
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[Seoul=Newsis] Intern Reporter Hwa-yeon Yoo = The decline in China’s marriage rate, coupled with the mass production of cheap synthetic diamonds, is analyzed as the cause of the sharp drop in natural diamond prices.
On the 23rd (local time), the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that the value of diamonds is plummeting globally, with wholesale diamond prices falling by about 40% over the past two years.
The global diamond market is rapidly restructuring as Chinese consumers seek fewer natural stones and Chinese factories mass-produce synthetic diamonds. Last year, the global synthetic diamond market was worth $15.3 billion, with China being the world’s largest producer, accounting for about 95% of it.
Synthetic diamonds possess quality that is difficult to distinguish from natural ones, but their price is as low as 10%.
Economist Rajiv Biswas analyzed, “China’s diamond market, the world’s second largest after the US at $9 billion, has cooled due to a declining marriage rate and economic slowdown. The perception that diamonds have no investment value has also expanded as prices have fallen for years.”
China is currently grappling with low marriage and birth rates.
According to the Chinese government, the number of marriage registrations from January to September this year was only 4.75 million. This is a 16.6% decrease compared to the same period last year and less than half the figure from 11 years ago in 2013.