An estimated 75% of jewelry stores in Mainland China, and the surrounding regions encompassing Greater China, were shut for an estimated 40-50 days through the first week of March.
Natural diamond supply is estimated to come off this year and continue to incrementally decline through at least 2021, which should be supportive of diamond prices and thus miners.
The ultra-successful “A Diamond is Forever” marketing campaign has been discontinued for over a decade now and so have many of the positive attributes of diamond ownership in consumers’ minds.
News flow out of the diamond industry in 2018 has been dominated by the progression of lab-created diamond production, distribution and pricing dynamics.
Given that most of the high-economic diamond deposits in the world have already been put into production, diluted via expansion, or depleted, going forward the economics of diamond mines will inevitably gravitate towards higher-cost, lower-value operations.
