Abstract
The past decade witnessed the global gem and jewelry industry undergoing some
significant changes and registering strong growth, on account of increasing
income as well as demand from the emerging economies across the world. Among
the various types of jewelry, plain diamond jewelry accounts for the largest
share of the global jewelry market, followed by plain gold jewelry. Diamond,
gold and platinum are the three main product segments, which collectively
account for approximately 95% of the global retail jewelry sales in value
terms.
Diamonds, as the major natural resource in the world, are used in both jewelry
and industrial applications. There has been a significant growth in the demand
for diamond-studded jewelry due to the improving economy in the key diamond
jewelry consuming countries and the vigorous marketing efforts of diamond
companies. The major changes witnessed by the diamond industry in the recent
years include rising demand for synthetic diamonds, as well as significant
developments in the entire value chain process like consolidation,
re-structuring of diamond processing, local benefaction, among others.
Traditionally, gold has held the leading position in most of the jewelry
markets worldwide because of the value and tradability factor associated with
it. Though the total consumption of plain gold jewelry decreased in volume
terms, the overall sales of gold recorded gain in value terms. In the
meantime, the demand for platinum jewelry has also increased in the recent
past, not only in the developed markets of the US and Europe, but also in the
emerging markets like China and India, due to the ‘elite' tag and
‘high-end' value attached to the metal.
A geographic segmentation shows the US as the largest consumer for gems and
jewelry, followed by China/ India, the Middle East and Japan. In the European
region, the UK and Italy are the largest consumers, with the former also being
one of the world' s largest jewelry fabrication centers. The emerging markets,
like China, India that are traditional jewelry centers of consumption, are
showing signs of becoming the largest consumption markets by 2015, for both
traditional as well as branded jewelry. The growth in the demand for gems and
jewelry is attributed to the burgeoning middle and rich-class as well as the
improving living standards. Nevertheless, the industry continues to face
problems due to competition from other luxury goods, as well as socio-ethical
issues.
On the whole, the report analyzes the trends and challenges of the gem and
jewelry and also outlines the opportunities driving the present as well as
future industry growth. The report focuses on the retail jewelry sales,
trends, jewelry segments future potential of the four large consumers of
jewelry - the US, China, India and the UK. It also discusses the sales,
demand, outlook of the three major segments of the jewelry industry, i.e.
platinum, gold and diamond. Further, the report analyzes the major gems and
jewelry companies (retail) - Gitanjali Gems Limited, Signet Jewelers Limited
and Tsutsumi.
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