China increases its cut of the diamond polishing market
May 30, 2005
India excels at polishing diamonds as tiny as a hundredth of a carat. Masters of this craft in Antwerp and in Tel Aviv excel at handling diamonds of a carat or more.
But pushing into the broad middle as the newest diamond power is China, a nation long enamored of jade that ignored the stones for much of its half century of communist rule.
The past is no longer holding it back. Several dozen privately owned foreign companies, most of them very secretive, have set up diamond polishing and jewelry manufacturing operations in China, many based here in a city about 129 kilometers, or 80 miles, up the Pearl River from Hong Kong. With a potent mix of experience, cheap labor, advanced technology and strict quality controls, they are challenging the industry leaders, especially India.
China now imports $800 million a year worth of rough diamonds and polishes them to become worth roughly $1.1 billion, accounting for 6 percent of the value added by the world's $4.6 billion diamond polishing industry.
India, with a million diamond workers and an 80 percent share of the diamond polishing business, is nervous. Alarmed by the pace and skill with which China is improving, India's diamond industry leaders say that in diamonds, as in so many other businesses, China's advance cannot be stopped.
Read the rest of the story at http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/30/business/diamond.php
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