Surat: A summary of the findings of the study on the synthetic diamond landscape carried out by Bonas & Co for the GJEPC’s Natural Diamond Monitoring Committee (NDMC) and released at the DDES 2017 estimates the current peak installed capacity of synthetic diamond manufacturers worldwide to be between 2.3 mn to 4.2 mn, or about 2-3% of total natural diamond supply.
Revealing this, Parul Merchant from Bonas & Co. Diamond Brokers & Consultants, said that these estimates were based on conservative calculations of down time, production disruptions, technical failures etc and had been arrived at using both primary and secondary research as well as interviews with experts.
Ashish Mehta, Convener NDMC said, “The committee has initiated a series of steps to facilitate fair trade and prevent any untoward instances that can damage reputation. The study by Bonas & Co, across four continents and four months, shows that synthetic diamond production through HPHT is growing faster while that through CVD is slower. China is the leader in HPHT production with Russia (larger pieces), while Singapore is the leader in CVD production. Synthetic diamonds have grown fast but not as much as what recent unconfirmed reports have indicated. There is no market impact but just a mentality impact. Today the natural diamond business has grown phenomenally due to the sustained marketing over the years. Synthetic diamond makers will take a long time to catch up.”
The study also revealed that it is easy to identify rough synthetic diamonds - CVD process yields a unique tubular output, which mostly has a brownish tinge whereas synthetic diamonds through HPHT are cubo-octahedral and fancy yellow. It noted that there has been a continuous improvement in technology for manufacturing gem quality synthetics, but the focus for most growers remains industrial diamonds. A few larger sized synthetic diamonds have been seen including a 10.2 ct VS1 and 5.2 ct VS1 fancy deep blue.
On the positive side, the study notes that the FTC and ISO have created guidelines to regulate the synthetics business, and many screening devices are now available that have faster throughput rates and are also able to screen melee as well as synthetics set in jewellery.
