Leaders of the Asian diamond industry converge at Asian Summit in Tokyo

Leaders of the Asian diamond industry shared their perspectives of their individual markets, at the Asian Summit hosted by the Tokyo Diamond Exchange Inc in Tokyo, between 3-4 March, 2013. Delegates were welcomed by Ernie Blom, WFDB president, and Michio Iwasaki, president of the Tokyo Diamond Exchange.

Those who attended included Mr Suresh Hathiramani, president of the Diamond Exchange of Singapore, key international players such as Avi Paz and Shmuel Schnitzer from the WFDB, Alex Popov, president of the Moscow Diamond Bourse, Rami Baron, president of the Diamond Dealers Club of Australia, and Tom Moses, vice-president of the GIA.

During the gathering, the Tokyo Diamond Exchange Club provided fundamental information on the Japanese market; that the value of its polished diamond imports between 2010 to end 2012 has increased 30 percent from US$692 million to US$900 million, yet are not up to the figures of the country’s polished diamond imports in 1992. Of the jewellery market in Japan valued at US$11.4 billion, diamond jewellery makes up 48.2 percent. Yano’s research informed that rebound from the great earthquake and tsunami in March 2011has helped the retail sales and the consumption of jewellery amongst the wealthy has further assisted growth. The future of the jewellery industry in Japan looks good and it is expected to grow by 2.9 percent on y-o-y basis in 2013 to ¥937.4 billion and by 4.8 percent on y-o-y basis in 2014 to ¥982 billion.

The Bangkok Diamond and Precious Stones Exchange reported on the single market formation of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Loas, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam to create a market with 584 million people and a combined GDP of US$2 trillion. This grouping known as ASEAN grew its GDP by 4.7 percent in 2011, a faster rate than most other regions in the world. The strategic position Thailand occupies in this grouping perfectly positions the country for trade with China, India and other AEC members. Thailand’s GDP growth in 2013 is projected at 5-6 percent. Diamond jewellery currently represents 10.98 percent of the total jewellery market of US$13,147 million.

Anoop Metha explained the importance of the Bharat Diamond Bourse, and its significance as one of the biggest diamond centres in the world. The bourse spread over 20 Acres/0.87 million sq feet, houses 2,500 diamond offices and eight banks, with state-of-the-art accommodation. The diamond import data for the 2011/2 and 2012/3 period shows an increase of 27.3 percent in rough diamonds and a decrease of 13.7 percent in cut and polished diamonds. The export data for the same period shows an increase in rough diamonds of 73.45 percent and a decline in cut and polished diamonds of 6.55 percent.