Solitaire stones sparkle with their crystalline purity, to the point that they may fool even the most sophisticated experts in the world of gemstones. However, this diamond did not lie in the ground for more than a billion teeth. Rather, it saw the light of day in an Indian laboratory, where it is sold for less than half the price of a natural gem.
Synthetic diamonds were first developed in the early 1950s, but the development of a commercially viable manufacturing pathway emerged less than a decade ago.
These synthetic gemstones have changed the rules of the game in the global diamond jewelry market, which is currently worth $89 billion, especially in the city of Surat in western India, where 90% of the world’s diamonds are cut and polished.
At the lab of Smit Patel, director of Greenlab Diamonds, in Surat, technicians drop diamond fragments, which they call “seeds,” into reactors that reproduce the extreme pressure that exists deep within the Earth.
It takes his teams less than eight weeks to produce a wearable synthetic diamond that is virtually indistinguishable from natural diamonds.
– Gas, heat and pressure –
The reactors in his lab are filled with gases such as methane, which contains carbon, as the “seeds” grow under the influence of heat and pressure.
The process results in “the same product, with the same chemical and optical properties,” according to Patel, whose family has been in the diamond business for three generations.
The synthetic diamonds are then transported to another facility where they are cut and polished by hundreds of workers.
In Bombay, Lekha Prabhakar, 29, seems well-versed in the subject.
“Any diamond that comes out of the mine sells for five times more,” she says.
The value of India’s synthetic diamond exports has tripled between 2019 and 2022. In terms of volume, these exports increased by 25% between April and October 2023, compared to 15% during the same period in 2022, according to the latest data in the sector.
“Greenlab Diamonds has seen 400% growth in volume from year to year,” Patel said.
The global market share in terms of the value of lab-grown diamonds, which rose from 3.5 percent in 2018 to 18.5 percent in 2023, is likely to exceed the 20 percent threshold this year, according to the resident industry expert. In New York, Paul Zimnisky told AFP.
In the United States, the largest consumer of natural diamonds in the world, 37% of engagement rings are artificial, compared to 17% in February 2023, according to diamond analyst Aidan Golan.
– ‘A perfect storm’ –
China and India, two of the largest producers of synthetic diamonds, contributed to this.
Indian laboratories exported 4.04 million carats between April and October 2023, an increase of 42% year-on-year, according to the Gem and Jewelery Export Promotion Council of India. In contrast, natural diamond exports decreased by more than 25%, reaching 11.3 million carats.
Natural diamond sales rose during the Covid-19 pandemic, but demand fell when economies returned to operating normally. Large companies have found themselves with expensive excess inventory.
Ajesh Mehta, whose group, Dr. Navinchandra Exports, has purchase rights from the giant diamond group De Beers, says that this decline is the largest since he began his work in the sector 30 years ago.
“It’s completely different from a lack of demand,” Mehta told AFP. With the economic slowdown in the United States and China, sanctions on Russian diamonds, and oversupply, “it all came together like a perfect storm.”
In October, India’s natural diamond sector was forced to voluntarily ban the import of rough diamonds, which are rare.
At least five accredited Indian buyers told AFP that De Beers had cut prices by 10% to 25% of its diamonds in its first sale of the year, a period of post-holiday restocking in the United States.
But synthetic diamonds have fallen victim to this surge in supply. Wholesale prices fell by 58% in 2023, according to Golan, and WD Lab Grown Diamonds, the second-largest producer in the United States, filed for bankruptcy in October.
According to retailers in Surat, the price of a low-quality 1-carat polished diamond has fallen from $2,400 in 2022 to around $1,000 in 2023.
For Patel, lower prices will stimulate demand. “We knew prices would fall, because there is no monopoly in this industry,” he says.
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