A 19.22 carat diamond, recovered from a shallow mine by a part-time digger in India’s Panna district, sold at auction for $111,000 (Rs 93,79,360).
It was one of 29 diamonds sold by the Panna Diamond Office, as part of a deal in which farmers and laborers rent small patches of land from the government. The other 28 stones raised just over $28,000 between them.
Many of the stones recovered have failed to find buyers at the three-monthly auctions over the last two years, but demand picked up at this latest event, with large crowds of bidders in attendance.
Panna is said to be home to 1.2m carats. Part-time miners pay $2.70 for the rights to dig a 25ft square patch there and diamond finds are quite common.
In February 2022 a part-time prospector dug up a 26.11-carat diamond which later sold for at auction for $193,000.
Maruti Impex, described as one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of small natural diamonds, is halting operations, and has advised its 15,000 workers to seek employment elsewhere.
The company’s founder, Suresh Lakhani, aged 45, suffered a stroke three months ago and remains in a coma.
He’s been the driving force behind the business, which he launched in 1995 when he was just 16 years old. He is said to be the sole decision maker.
The future of Maruti Impex, which operates over 100 units, directly and indirectly, in Surat, Bhavnagar, Amreli, and Junagadh, is now uncertain.
Staff were informed of the closure by audio message, just as diamond units re-open after the Diwali break.
They received salaries up to the holiday, but have been told it’s not clear when operations could resume. The company made mention of “three or four months”.
Family members stepped in short term following Lakhani’s stroke, but have reportedly decided to pause operations because of weak market conditions.
Times of India quotes Dinesh Navadiya, chairman of the Indian Diamond Institute, as saying: “Without his (Lakhani’s) leadership and given the current challenging market conditions, the management is unable to continue operations.”
Lakhani describes himself on LinkedIn as a “self-made entrepreneur and philanthropist who has built a successful global business – “Maruti Impex” from scratch. Maruti Impex is one of the largest companies in the world in cut and polished diamonds.”
Hundreds of carats of diamonds unearthed by part-time diggers in India’s diamond-rich Panna district remain unsold after state-run auctions failed to attract buyers.
Farmers and laborers rent small patches of land from the government and regularly recover gems worth potentially life-changing sums.
But many of their finds have been unsold at recent auctions conducted by the Panna Diamond Office, as demand slumps globally and lab growns take ever larger shares of the market.
At the latest sale 64 diamonds, weighing 111.45 carats, were unsold, according to a Free Press report.
It said that in 2022-23, at least 139 diamonds, weighing 255.47 carats were unsold, and in 2021-22, there were unsold 68 diamonds, weighing 73.15 carats.
Panna is said to be home to 1.2m carats. Part-time miners pay $2.70 for the rights to dig a 25ft square patch there and diamond finds are quite common.
In May 2022 farmer Pratap Singh Yadav (pictured) recovered an 11.88-carat diamond and said he’d use proceeds from the sale of the stone to set up a business and pay for his children’s education.
In February of that year another part-time prospector dug up a 26.11-carat diamond which later sold for $193,000. And in February 2021 laborer Rampyare Vishwakarma unearthed a 14.09-ct diamond.
India’s exports of polished diamonds suffered yet another big fall in September, down 22.9 per cent, according to the latest figures from the GJEPC (Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council).
That’s a marginally better performance than August, when year-on-year exports were down by 23.8 per cent. Between April and September total foreign sales fell 20.6 per cent (all figures in US dollars).
Actual monthly sales tell a different story from year-on-year decreases. Total foreign sales for September were $1.29bn, compared to $1.04bn in August and $908m in July.
Across the whole gems and jewelry industry in India, gross exports were $2.54bn, down 15.9 per cent year-on-year (compared to 22.9 per cent for polished diamonds).
Exports of polished lab growns – still a tiny minority of all diamond sales – were down 16.5 per cent to $111m.
India’s exports of polished diamonds fell by 23.8 per cent year-on-year in August, according to the latest figures from the GJEPC (Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council).
Total foreign sales were $1.04bn, compared to $1.36bn last August. Exports in July were $908m, down 22.7 per cent.
Polished diamond exports have fallen every month this year, down 20 per cent in January, 28 per cent in February, 27 per cent in March, 17 per cent in April, 15 per cent in May and 26 per cent in June. All figures are for US dollars.
Gross exports of all gems and jewelry fell by 18.8 per cent during August – a slower rate of decline than diamonds – to $2.01bn.
Rough imports for the April to August period were down 22.6 per cent to $4.98bn.
Nirmala Sitharaman finance minister of india in a press confrence .
India’s diamond industry welcomed a raft of measures announced in today’s budget (23 July) which will encourage direct diamond sales from foreign mining companies and reduce tax on key raw materials.
Finance Minister Nirmala (pictured) said safe harbor rates would be introduced, providing fixed and favorable tax rates for rough purchases in the country’s SNZs (Special Notified Zones).
Safe harbor streamlines the taxation process and eliminates unexpected liabilities for foreign suppliers.
Sitharaman also announced significant tax reductions on gold and silver to 6 per cent (from 15 per cent and 10 per cent) and on platinum to 6.4 per cent (from 12.5 per cent) and the exemption of diamond sales from a 2 per cent equalization levy aimed at promoting sustainability.
“India is a world leader in the diamond cutting and polishing industry, which employs a large number of skilled workers,” Sitharaman said in her Budget speech.
“To further promote the development of this sector, we would provide for safe harbor rates for foreign mining companies selling raw diamonds in the country.”
“I want to applaud and congratulate the Central Government for their three-point game changing decisions for the gems and jewellery industry,” said Vipul Shah, chairman of GJEPC (Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council).
“The reduction of customs duty on gold and silver, exclusion of diamond sector from 2 per cent equalisation level and simplifying taxation rules in Special Notified Zones (SNZ) for rough diamonds will provide a leadership position to the Indian gems and jewellery industry.”
India will lead demand for natural diamonds in 2024, says David Kellie, CEO of Natural Diamond Council (NDC), as US buyers increasingly switch to lab grown.
“The Indian market remains the strongest growth market in the world because of its strong financial position and changing demographics,” he told The Economic Times, in India.
“Indian women are now financially stronger, and they are driving the demand. The key economic indicators in the US are not yet favourable for a demand recovery in diamond purchase.”
Kellie (pictured) predicts a polarization between the natural and lab grown markets, with a price difference currently at 80 per cent to 90 per cent.
Natural diamonds will become increasingly rare, he said, with no new mines in prospect, and with miners digging deeper, and spending more, to reach remaining deposits.
India saw a slump in polished-diamond exports but an increase in rough imports in October as global demand remained slow and manufacturers brought goods into the country ahead of a two-month shipment freeze.
Polished exports fell 33% year on year to $1.26 billion, the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) reported earlier this month. Inbound rough shipments rose 9% to $1.02 billion despite a two-month voluntary pause on imports aimed at reducing inventories. The policy came into effect on October 15.
A decline in rough prices ahead of the optional freeze and the Diwali holiday created an opportunity for Indian companies to buy, added GJEPC chairman Vipul Shah.
About the data: India, the world’s largest diamond-cutting center, is a net importer of rough and a net exporter of polished. As such, net polished exports — representing polished exports minus polished imports — will usually be a positive number. Net rough imports — calculated as rough imports minus rough exports — will also generally be in surplus. The net diamond account is total rough and polished exports minus total imports. It is India’s diamond trade balance, and shows the added value the nation creates by manufacturing rough into polished.
A new office building in India’s diamond city Surat in Gujarat, where 90% of the world’s diamonds are manufactured has surpassed the Pentagon as the largest structure of the kind.
Built over 7.1 million square feet of floor space, the Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB) has a big leg up on the 6.5 million square feet headquarters building of the US department of defense in Arlington, Virginia. The Pentagon was the world’s largest building for 80 years before it got dethroned.
The 15-story structure, featuring a succession of nine rectangular structures spilling out from a central “spine,” cost a whopping 32-billion-rupee ($388 million) to develop and build.
Indian architecture firm Morphogenesis stopped and started construction over four years because over pandemic-related delays. The building is finally due to open its doors in November 2023, with prime minister Narendra Modi due to inaugurate it.
Quotable: Narendra Modi lauds Surat Diamond Bourse “Surat Diamond Bourse showcases the dynamism and growth of Surat’s diamond industry. It is also a testament to India’s entrepreneurial spirit. It will serve as a hub for trade, innovation and collaboration, further boosting our economy and creating employment opportunities.” Prime minister Narendra Modi, who was Gujarat’s chief minister from 2001 to 2014, quote-tweeted a video of the Surat premises yesterday.
Working in the Surat Diamond Bourse, by the digits 4,700 office spaces: Office spaces in the Surat Diamond Bourse, which can also double up as small workshops for cutting and polishing diamonds. The offices were all purchased by diamond companies prior to construction, project CEO Mahesh Gadhavi.
65,000: Diamond professionals, including cutters, polishers and traders, that can work on the premises at a given time. Besides offices, the workers also have access to dining, retail, wellness and conference facilities
9: Number of 1.5-acre courtyards with seating and water features that can serve as casual meeting places for traders
131: Number of elevators on the premises
7 minutes: The maximum amount of time it takes to reach any office from any of the building’s entry gates, according to Sonali Rastogi, co-founder of the Indian architecture firm Morphogenesis that designed the behemoth building. In a democratic move, the offices were assigned to business via a lottery system
3 times: How much bigger SDB is compared its counterpart in Mumbai, Bharat Diamond Burse (BDB)
400: The small number of merchants that were willing to move in during the touted November 2022 opening, which led to the opening being postponed. Mumbai’s Palanpuri diamantaires are staying put because they do not want to incur establishment cost, transport cost, and take on overheads of maintenance when the trading business is struggling.
Plummeting demand for cut and polished diamonds in the West and China has pushed some 20,000 workers out of work in the last one month in Surat, where 80% of the diamonds sold globally are polished.
Surat, the main centre of India’s diamond industry, offers employment to some 800,000 workers in its 4,000-odd cutting and polishing units. But work has been drying up, forcing the units to work at 60-70% capacity, said Damji Mavani, secretary of Surat Diamond Association (SDA). It also means fewer workers are needed.
“Fear is looming large in the diamond city of Surat whether the recession of 2008 will be repeated this year too,” said Bhavesh Tank, vice president of Diamond Workers Union, Gujarat. “Orders are fewer and so the workload is less. Therefore, the units are reducing workforce. Some units are cutting down work days so that they do not have to pay the workers on days when they are not working.”
According to Tank, nearly 20,000 diamond workers in Surat have lost jobs in the last one month.
The US is the biggest market for cut and polished diamonds, followed by China.
India’s diamond exports began slowing in November last year. According to data from the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), overall gross exports of cut and polished diamonds in the April to November period of FY23 declined by 5.43% from the year-ago period.
Another reason is the dropping price of the polished pieces. While the price of rough diamonds continues to be high, that of the polished ones have softened due to low demand, which is impacting the margins of diamantaires and forcing them to reduce workforce.
Mavani of SDA said the workers who have lost their jobs will find work in other areas. “There is a 30% vacancy in most of the factories,” he said.
However, there’s an air of uncertainty in Surat due to the fear of recession in the US, Europe and China. “We do not know when the situation will improve. It may take one year for a robust uptick in demand from overseas markets,” the SDA secretary said.
“With the pandemic in China making a comeback and there are no signs of respite from the war between Russia and Ukraine, inflation soaring in some parts of the world, we are out there for some tough times,” said Vipul Shah, chairman, GJE ..
Shah said the drop in price of polished diamond is eating into the margins of traders.
Traders said business in polished diamonds is also sluggish because of the seasonal lull, lingering economic uncertainty, and the slowdown in China. Although China eased its Covid-19 lockdowns last month, another outbreak stifled the recovery ahead of their Lunar New Year.
