Tariffs mark the latest blow for already struggling diamond sector

They can be made of the toughest material on Earth, but diamonds, with their complex supply chains and their expectation price, are shortly fragile for the tariff agenda of the president of the United States, Donald Trump.

The Mineral Price faces an import service of 10% baseline for the US, a market that represents more than half of the global demand for polished diamonds. The sector is also preparing for additional tasks if Trump’s 90 -day break comes to an end without new agreements.

“It is very clear that the diamond industry, globally, has faced a storm or perfect challenges,” said Karen Stewards, executive director of the Center for World Diamonds Antwerp, said the rates are just “the last blow.”

The small precious stones often cross several edges before finishing in a store. From mines in Botswana or South Africa, to shopping centers in the Middle East or Europe, and then to the cutting and polishing centers, before returning to a jewelry manufacturer, there is often a long trip before the article reaches a store. This complex supply chain means that the diamond industry is highly susceptible to any commercial interruption.

Raw materials such as gold and copper legs excluded from US tariffs. And the industry is pressing so that diamonds are also excluded.

Rentmeesesters directed by the 580 -year corporation that repeats around 1,400 companies within the Diamond district of Antwerp, they said: “It could be argued that loose diamonds are a raw material. It does not walk with a daily daily newspaper in Diario in Bagado, it is in a ring or a pair or earrings.”

Tariff uncertainty arrives at a time when the luxury industry in general is already having a deceleration in demand after a rise after pandemic and an economic fall in China.

However, the largest interruption of the industry has been the creation of laboratory diamonds (LGD). The identical chemist, the stones are impossible to distinguish with the naked eye. They are selling with an 80% discount to the natural version and customers are taking advantage of the cheapest prices.

In half of the couples surveyed in the USA last year, he said that his commitment ring presented a laboratory diamond, according to the 2025 real wedding study for the knot that included ideas of almost 17,000 couples.

A moment of Cuenca was in 2021 when Pandora, the world’s largest jewelry brand by volume, became the first to stop selling minted diamonds.

“In the United States, about 18 months ago, the volume of diamonds cultivated in laboratory in loose stones exceeded Mined’s. Therefore, if there is any questions in people’s minds, that is happening, it was very visible from there, and it was carried out.

“With this type of value proposition that laboratory diamonds can sacrifice, we can sacrifice real diamonds to more people. Therefore, it is not necessarily that you see that the total volume of diamonds will fall. We will probably be more people.”

With the bad macroconomic conditions and the increase in the competition of the LGD, the price of extraction Diamonds It has fallen almost 60% from a peak in March 2022.

However, some analysts say that the industry is close to reaching a stabilization point between LGD and minted diamonds. “The question to ask is, how much lower the prices that consumers can see a clear differentiation between the two products,” said Paul Zimnisky, an independent diamond analyst?

Hi, he added: “And I think we are finally beginning to reach that point where you could buy, a three or five carat, which are ridiculous sizes for a commitment ring: you can buy the cultivated laboratory, you know some or thousands or dollars.

Given the thesis challenges, some key players are rethinking their strategies.

De Beers, an important player in the diamond industry, said there were signs of a specialty in the demand of the United States before Christmas and before tariff uncertainty. Instead of investing in the Burgeonon market of LGD, Deurss is doubling with natural diamonds.

De Beers recently announced that he will close his LG Jewelry box in an attempt to reinforce “his commitment to natural diamonds in the jewelry sector.”

“The value persistently in decline of the diamonds cultivated in the laboratory in jewelry underlines the growing differentiation between these products manufactured in factory and natural diamonds,” said the CEO of Beers, to the company in a statement from the company.

The firm said the closure is aligned with the strategy he presented in May last year, “to focus on high performance activities and rationalize the business.”

The closure also occurs at a time when Anglo American, the matrix company of beers, is disabled the company and is in the process of looking for potential buyers.

In the current luxury deceleration jewelry, it has been a remarkable bright point, especially the high -Jewish segment, seen as less cyclical caterial for the richest clientele.

Earl this month, RichemontIt exceeded expectations with the income driven by the growth of two digits in the group’s maisons jewelry division, which includes Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Buccellati.

According to analysts, the key to the striker of the extracted industry is in the messages: “You must remember a diamond, it is a very emotional purchase. It is not a practical purchase. And people like history meet creation,” Zimnisky said.

“I only think it corresponds to the industry to provide consumers with the confidence they need if they are going to spend significantly more for a natural diamond, they want to make sure it is definitely a natural diamond. I think that should be the point.”