Diamonds - Current trends

With the approach of the Easter and the Thai New Year (better known
as Songkran) the Asian markets came to a rest during the beginning of
April. right before that, the region saw some positive signs of
improvements in the diamond business especially during the HKG fair
of last March. the fair saw a significant increase in the amount of
diamond buyers especially with the fact that most of them couldn’t
make it to the last September fair due to the tragic reasons
concerning the terror attack in the US.

The last 2 months saw an improvement in the demand for the small size
diamonds. in Asia for instance, “commercial color” goods (I,J) are
well received by the local traders as well as by the jewelers as they
are being cheap in value yet nice looking in size when set in a piece
of jewellery. prices of such goods have adjusted accordingly and not
to the better… prices have actually declined and allowed for more
jewelry companies to migrate and use the better cut diamonds (such as
the Thai-Cut and Chinese Cut goods instead of the Indian-Cut
Diamonds). this change was better felt in Asian markets.

Recent slowdown in the demand for 1/10 stones have also bottomed out
and during the last few weeks we can see an improving demand for such
goods. prices however, are in need for an upward adjustment.

In the “Pointer” market (0.20/Ct+), there is a demand now for better
cut 0.20 and 0.25 stones. again, the main consumption for the better
quality goods is the Asian market with prices generally meeting the
sellers expected sell price.

Larger goods are in shortage of certain types especially the well cut
4/4 and 8/8 I,J,K colors. prices have increased quite a lot in
recent weeks, with customers not recognizing the need to pay more to
get hold of such goods.

Yoram Burg - General manager - Sunrise Diamond (Bangkok)
sunrise_diamond@inet.co.th +662 - 5102338
http://SUNRISEdiamond.tripod.com