The current energy crisis in China has taken its toll on the country’s lab-created diamond industry as production dropped by 10-15 per cent in the past month or so and could cause prices to increase towards the end of the year.
The rising prices for coal used for power generation and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were blamed for the power shortages, according to Liu Houxiang, a consultant at China’s National Gemstone Testing Center.
Liu told Bloomberg that around three million carats of lab-created diamonds are produced annually in China, which is almost half of the seven million carats made globally each year.
While the impact is “not too significant so far,” according to Liu, producers have expressed plans to increase prices without providing specific details.
The manufacture of lab-created diamonds requires extreme temperature and pressure to replicate the diamond-making process and can only be achieved when power demand is met.
However, the lab-created diamond industry is not the only industry impacted by the power shortage that started in the Chinese summer. Among the hardest hit since September are manufacturing companies such as apparel factories, metal producers, and suppliers for Apple products.
Currently, China is one of the largest producer and consumer markets for lab-created diamonds in the world for use in jewellery, technology, medical, and industrial use.
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