The export of raw gemstones and jewelry products in the "Chinese capital of Synthetic Stones", south China's Wuzhou City, has seen strong growth following the arrival of peak season which has driven up sales.
Wuzhou's synthetic gems industry was born over four decades ago.The city is now home to 70 percent of global artificial gemstone production.
The Wuzhou Gemstone City, which gathers more than 1,000 artificial gemstone stores, is serving buyers from all over the world.
Local artificial gem jewelry manufacturers entered peak season since August and are handling multiple overseas orders for Christmas products that usually start hitting the shelves during the end of November.
"This year, our penetration of European and American markets has expanded by about 30 percent, with the Southeast Asian market also growing by 20 percent. Relying on the advantages of artificial gemstone cutting techniques, we can produce gemstones of various shapes to meet the design requirements," said Qin Qinglin, manager of a local jewelry production company.
The head of another company said that this year's synthetic gem jewelry has more styles, with the more elegant finishings attracting higher prices.
"In the past, a pair of simply-designed earrings were sold at about 5 to 8 U.S. dollars, and now the price is basically no less than 10 U.S. dollars," said Dai Xiaojun, manager of another jewelry production company.
Wuzhou has formed a complete industrial chain of bare artificial gemstone cutting and jewelry processing. Data shows that in the first eight months of this year, the total exports for Wuzhou gem companies was 180 million yuan, or 25.3 million U.S. dollars, an increase of 173.2 percent.
Since the beginning of this year, the prices of artificial gems such as white zircon, cultivated diamonds and moissanite diamonds have declined, bringing about a significant increase in sales.
"The two months before Christmas are when most purchases are made. The price of white zircon raw material has dropped by about 15 percent, and that of synthetic blue sapphire and ruby is also down by about 15 percent this year," said Liu Zhihui, a buyer.
Cultivated diamonds have seen the biggest price drop among artificial gemstones, which has boosted purchases by global buyers.
"Last year, each cultivated stone averaged 1,300 to 1,400 yuan (about 182 to 196 U.S. dollars), and this year, the price is at 650 to 700 yuan. This month I will buy 15,000 to 20,000 carats of cultivated stones, compared with 6,000 to 7,000 carats the same period last year," said Jack, a buyer from India.
In the past, the embryonic material of artificial gemstones was processed into bare stone by manually cutting and polishing, which led to low output and high processing costs. Now the artificial gem processing companies in Wuzhou have largely adopted automation equipment to reduce costs and increase production, further promoting the reduction in market prices.
"We added 80 new sets of devices this year. In the past, we had a capacity of 1 million carats per month, but now our capacity has doubled since the new machines were put into use," said Liu Tongqing, manager of a moissanite diamonds production company.
South China's "capital of synthetic stones" sees rise in gem exports
