China to Pose a Threat to India's Position in Global Diamond Industry

For a long time, India has been the first power in global diamond polishing field. However, with China's export surges, the south Asian country has to turn to Russia for help to maintain itd market share.

The origin of diamond is Russia and Africa. In tradition, India usually relies on global diamond trade centers, such as Antwerp in Belgium, Tel Aviv in Israel, and Dubai in the UAE (United Arab Emigrates) to supply rough diamond. Most of the diamonds have been exported to India where cutting and polishing process are done before they are sent all over the world.

In recent years, China has managed to break the traditional rules by gaining rough diamond from Africa diamond mines whose shareholders are Chinese. The method has made China's diamond processing trade net export volume surge 72%, with sales amount of $8,900,000,000 in the past five years.

Although Indian companies, such as Asian Star, Gitanjali Gems Ltd., and Venus Jewel, have seen a 49% increase in export sales volume, which is $14,000,000,000, the shipment this year witnesses a sharp decline.

"China's active purchasing for rough diamond resulted in the Africa's amount of supply to India. A large number of companies have to downsize due to financial loss," say Assocham and Sandeep Varia , senior executives from Indian Diamond Industry Association.

According to the statistics from the United Nations, in the past decade, China's market share in global diamond processing market increased by 3 times to 17%, while India's market share fluctuated between 19% to 31%.

Author: Liwei Chu
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