A study on the synthetic gem diamond landscape conducted by Bonas & Co for the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council’s Natural Diamond Monitoring Committee (NDMC) estimates the current peak installed capacity of synthetic diamond manufacturers worldwide to be between 2.3 million to 4.2 million carats a year, equivalent to about two to three percent of total natural diamond supply.
The findings were released at the Diamond Detection Expo & Symposium held in Surat between 14 to 15 April 2017.
The study was carried out across four continents over four months and shows that synthetic diamond production through HPHT is growing faster while that through CVD is slower. Regarding producing countries, China is the leader in HPHT production with Russia (larger pieces), while Singapore is the leader in CVD production.
It noted that while there has been a continuous improvement in technology for manufacturing gem quality synthetics, the focus for most growers remains industrial diamonds.
On the positive side, the study pointed that the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) have created guidelines to regulate the synthetics business, and many screening devices have faster throughput rates and are able to screen melee as well as synthetics set in jewellery.
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