Dubai Diamond Conference on 26 Sept
Organised by DMCC, the Dubai Diamond Conference (DDC) will take place on 26 September 2019 in Dubai, UAE. The conference will bring together industry experts to discuss key topics and trends in the market. Hosted in the iconic Almas Tower, the event will attract hundreds of industry experts across the precious stone value chain.
Well announced DDC is organising around, ‘Disruption in diamonds: harnessing innovation and technology for positive change’ widely spread in to three slots of Panel discussion. All together the Panel would focus on, 1: Technology Disruption: How will increased manufacturing automation affect our supply chain, 2: Market Disruptions: The Advent of Lab-Grown Diamonds - What does it mean for the diamond sector & 3: The Diamantaire Perspective: How do we bring positive change given the disruption and current market conditions!
There would be brain storming around the above three! The DDC would witness, technological advancements in diamond manufacturing processes have led to increased automation. Indeed, some predict that fully automated manufacturing could be with us in less than a decade.
What this would mean is a dramatically less labour intensive process, whereby we can get from a rough to polished product with limited intervention. There are a handful of technological companies pursuing this aim. In parallel, there are developments in automated polished grading.
This entails a transition from human quality judgement to technology based judgement. This panel aims to explore the implications of these developments.
Technology now allows gem-quality diamonds to be produced in laboratory/factory conditions, such that they are considered physically equivalent to their mined counterparts. The method of creation is the core differentiator between the two.
The technologies used to create lab-grown diamonds (LGDs), namely CVD and HPHT, are continuing to improve and become highly cost-effective, at a time when costs of mining are increasing. The key issue is how natural diamonds and lab-grown diamonds will interact in the consumer markets.
Diamantaires have struggled with profitability in recent times, squeezed between rough and polished, while facing increasing financial risks and market uncertainty. On top of all this, diamantaires have to deal with major disruptions that present both challenges and opportunities.
The core question is what can diamond companies do to improve their chances of success? What might be the best response strategies, and how can people bring their fate in their own hands.
