Diamond prices drop 90%, cheap jewelry revolution from Ha Nam

The explosion of synthetic diamonds, especially from China, is pushing natural diamond prices to record lows and forever changing the concept of luxury jewelry.

Natural diamond disaster

It takes the Earth over a billion years to create a natural diamond, but man-made diamonds can be produced in just a week.

The emergence of these lab-grown diamonds is causing major disruption to the traditional industry, according to Marty Hurwitz, head of the Synthetic Diamond Trade Organization.

Man-made diamonds first appeared on the jewelry market more than a decade ago, but recent technological advances have made production significantly cheaper.

Today, a 3-carat lab-grown diamond costs just 7% of what a mined diamond of similar size would cost. Data from Tenoris shows that lab-grown diamonds have captured 17% of the U.S. retail market by volume, up from just 3% in 2020.

"This is like a survival competition between natural diamond companies," said Ben Davis, an analyst at RBC.

The World 's New Diamond Valley

More than 70% of the world's synthetic diamonds used in jewelry come from China, with Henan at the heart of the industry.

China's shift to diamond production was not driven by jewelry demand but by geopolitics , as the Soviet Union cut off its industrial diamond supply in the early 1960s.

By the 1980s, Henan had become a center for industrial diamond production. Only in the past decade have Chinese companies moved into the higher-margin jewelry business.

Today, most synthetic diamonds in China are produced using the "high pressure, high temperature" (HPHT) method, and more and more manufacturers are using the "chemical vapor deposition" (CVD) method for larger gemstones.

After being pre-processed, they are shipped to Surat, India for polishing, before going to trading centers such as Antwerp or Dubai and finally to consumers.

However, few consumers are aware of China's central role, as customs labeling conventions often list the country of origin as the country where the diamond was polished.

China’s diamond industry is also strategically important due to its use in military and defense equipment. Norinco, China’s state-owned arms manufacturer, even operates a synthetic diamond business with its own jewelry brand.

The Future of the Diamond Industry: Luxury vs. Massive Segmentation

In 2018, natural diamond giant De Beers launched the lab-grown diamond company Lightbox Jewelry to create a niche market that would maintain the luxury appeal of expensive natural diamonds. However, this move sparked a price war that sent natural diamond prices plummeting.

By the end of 2024, De Beers' diamond inventory had reached $2 billion, the largest inventory since the 2008 financial crisis.

The price of synthetic diamonds has plummeted to an unbelievable level. In 2020, a 3-carat synthetic diamond retailed for about $28,900. By the second quarter of 2025, that price had dropped to just $3,900, one-eighth of what it had been before. As Chinese companies improved their technology and lowered their retail prices, Lightbox lost its edge and shut down this year.

In Henan, the Chinese provincial government has stepped in by forming a new diamond association to control the price war, similar to the one in the electric car industry. One of the association’s first moves was to set a minimum price of $15 per carat for rough diamonds.

David Kellie, CEO of the Natural Diamond Council, acknowledged the challenge from synthetic diamonds but said the main reason for the price drop was the imbalance of supply and demand in the wake of the pandemic.

“This industry has a history of ups and downs… We had a huge peak, and now we’re going through a trough that’s deeper than any year before,” he said.

The emergence of synthetic diamonds has had a positive side effect: the democratization of diamonds. Ankur Daga, co-founder of online jewelry company Angara, marvels at their popularity: “This is a perfect substitute, chemically, physically, optically identical… For the jewelry industry, this is really quite exciting. Everyone who has ever dreamed of buying diamond jewelry can finally buy it.”

As the price of gold has risen, the cost of engagement rings has changed. For many buyers of synthetic diamond rings today, the most expensive component is no longer the stone itself, but the gold that encases it. This shows that synthetic diamonds are not only changing the market, but also reshaping how consumers define luxury and value in jewelry.

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Source: https://baonghean.vn/gia-kim-cuong-giam-90-cuoc-cach-mang-trang-suc-gia-re-tu-ha-nam-10303205.html