Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, May 21
Caught in a trade war with the US, China is fast turning diamond processing units in Gujarat and Rajasthan into re-export hubs of man-made stones to the former.
According to diamond exporters here, Chinese manufacturers with huge capacities to grow artificial diamonds in laboratories may have sent as much as Rs3,000 crore worth of the stones to India in 2018. Most of them have been processed for re-export to the US.
“Many smaller units in Gujarat and Rajasthan are now dependent entirely on Chinese man-made diamonds as demand for natural diamonds is falling,” says Amod Shah, a diamond exporter from Mumbai.
According to him, margins for cutting these man-made stones are as low as Rs10 per carat, while natural diamonds used to fetch Rs50 per carat. But the work involved is much less than natural diamonds and the volumes are sufficient to keep business going, says Shah.
Sources in the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council say Chinese man-made diamonds enter Mumbai via Dubai and onward to cutting and polishing units in Gujarat and Rajasthan. The cheaper imports from China are posing a major threat to local manufactures.
Stones Meant for US diverted to India
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Diamond exporters said Chinese manufacturers had sent Rs 3,000 crore worth of the stones to India in 2018, most of which have been processed for re-export to the US
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“Many smaller units in Gujarat and Rajasthan are now dependent entirely on Chinese man-made diamonds as demand for natural diamonds is falling," said a diamond exporter from Mumbai
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/2JWj80z
via Today’s News Headlines
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