INDIAN INDUSTRY LEADERS: CHANCES OF LARGE-SCALE ENTRY OF SYNTHETIC INTO MARKET LOW

Indian diamond industry leaders say the likelihood of the large-scale entry of synthetic diamonds into the market continues to remain low.

Since synthetic diamonds are best-suited to industrial needs and mostly manufactured for that aim, they are less of a threat to the diamond jewelry industry, diamantaires told The Times of India.

Synthetic diamond manufacturers can tailor the stones for specific uses because they are able control their properties of hardness, thermal conductivity and electron mobility.

Only 5 percent of synthetics, which are usually produced to a weight of one carat or lower, make their way to the gem-diamond market. The rest are used in a wide range of industrial and high-tech applications.

Sanghavi Exports Director Aagam Sanghavi says, "Synthetic diamonds no longer pose a challenge to the [Indian] diamond manufacturing centre. They may pose some challenge at the trading level, but can be dealt with [by] disclosure, detection and differentiation."

"The production of synthetic diamonds is less than one percent of that of the global production of natural diamonds annually. All the manufacturers of synthetic diamonds are doing legal business. The synthetic or cultured diamonds are 30 percent cheaper than the natural stones," Sanghavi adds.

Surat Diamond Association President Dinesh Navadia says, "I don't think synthetic diamonds are a threat. The diamond companies should join hands in the promotion of natural diamonds in the country, like the 'A diamond is forever' campaign of De Beers."

Diamond Intelligence Briefs publisher Chaim Even-Zohar said in a presentation at the US/International Diamond Week at the Israel Diamond Exchange last week that around US$500 million of polished synthetic diamonds entered the diamond pipeline in 2012 out of a total of US$22 billion of polished goods.

"You have not heard about this because nobody is telling you about it," he says. "The synthetic diamond manufacturers have substantially increased their production with the use of hundreds of diamond-growing machines.

"A 'perfect' system has been developed where diamonds are produced using the Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) and then the color is improved using the High Pressure-High Temperature (HPHT) system. According to estimates, in Surat in India, 5-7 percent of diamonds produced that are less than one point in weight are synthetics."