25% of US Newlyweds Choose to Buy Lab diamonds as Engagement Rings

According to statistics, the average cost of a diamond engagement ring in the U.S. in 2021 will be $7,011, a 6.1% increase from 2020, as the newlywed population chooses larger diamonds, and more lab diamonds.

On average, the weight selection of the main stone diamond increases from 1.20 to 1.32 carats. Nearly a quarter of couples are choosing lab diamonds, according to research by insurance technology firm BriteCo. The share of man made diamond engagement rings has grown from 19% in 2020 to more than 24%.

Spending on natural diamond engagement rings increased by nearly 12 percent to $8,053, with the choice of main stone diamonds increasing from 1.16 carats in 2020 to 1.25 carats in 2021.

Man made diamond engagement rings sold for an average of $4,383, up 8.6 percent from the previous year, with an average main stone weight of 1.49 carats (up 11 percent).

As Millennials and Gen Z take the stage as the new suitors, we are seeing a shift in traditional preferences for engagement rings to reflect their values," said Dustin Lemick, founder and CEO of BriteCo. More and more young people are evaluating and buying lab diamonds, but natural diamonds continue to remain dominant."

In this context, lab diamonds are receiving more attention from the market. So-called lab diamonds, also called man made diamonds, are real diamonds grown in a laboratory.

According to reports, in a man made diamond sales store in Beijing's Wangfujing Commercial Street, no difference between them and natural diamonds can be seen at all through the naked eye. It was a weekend afternoon, and every now and then a customer walked into the store and asked about the style and price of the jewelry.

A Beijing-based consumer said that when choosing a ring, the first thing to do is to see if it looks good on you, and the second thing to do is to look at the price. I'm just starting to look at cultivating diamonds, I'm still in the introductory stage. Another consumer said, it is similar to the brightness of natural diamonds, if I can not be divided, cost-effective, more cost-effective.

Industry insiders, natural diamonds are grown at a depth of 200 kilometers below the surface under extreme high temperature and pressure conditions, with a brilliant brilliance and hard qualities, but expensive. Lab diamonds, on the other hand, are lab grown diamonds with the same physical and chemical properties as natural diamonds, but at about one-third of the price of natural diamonds.

Xu Guoliang, a partner of a man made diamond brand, said that in the past few years, most consumers in the store did not understand lab diamonds, and even thought that lab diamonds are fake diamonds. In the past two years, more and more people understand and buy lab diamonds, Xu Guoliang and several other partners intend to open additional stores.

According to consulting firm Bain, the market penetration of lab diamonds has increased rapidly in recent years, with the global penetration of lab diamonds growing from 5.9% to 8% from 2020 to 2021, and is expected to reach 15.8% by 2025; the penetration of lab diamonds in China will grow from 4% to 6.7% from 2020 to 2021, and is expected to reach 13.8% by 2025. The penetration rate is expected to reach 13.8% by 2025.

According to the sales manager of a man made diamond brand, as consumers' awareness of lab diamonds increases and consumption habits upgrade, sales of lab diamonds in the domestic consumer market, especially in first-tier cities, are growing at a rapid pace.

Li Yang, general manager of a man made diamond brand in Greater China, said that compared to the same period last year 2021 in January and February, both online sales and offline store sales, there is a very large growth, some stores even achieved a 300% growth rate.

It is understood that in the field of lab diamonds, China's production capacity accounts for about 50% of the total global man made diamond production capacity, of which 80% is located in Henan. In Henan Shangqiu, an enterprise specializing in the production of superhard materials, this enterprise currently produces industrial diamonds and lab diamonds, etc.. In the production workshop a six-sided top hydraulic press is running, these six-sided top hydraulic press can simulate the growth environment and crystallization conditions of natural diamonds.

It is understood that the raw material for diamond cultivation is graphite, which is grown and cultivated under high temperature and pressure after adding catalyst. At this time, the last round of production cultivation has just been completed and production workers are checking the equipment before putting in the graphite synthesis blocks for the next round of production cultivation. Recently, with the increase of downstream orders, the workshop has gradually increased the production capacity of lab diamonds.

Zhang Cunsheng, chief engineer of a listed company of lab diamonds, introduced that the equipment seen now is a six-sided top hydraulic press, which can be used to produce industrial diamonds as well as lab diamonds. The proportion of equipment for lab diamonds has increased from 30% last year to over 60% this year. The capacity of the single machine for lab diamonds has increased by more than 30% compared to last year.

According to the technical workers, the single grain of lab diamonds produced by these machines can reach 10-20 carats, and the physical and chemical properties are exactly the same as those of natural diamonds, and the cultivation cycle only takes about three weeks. The head of the enterprise's marketing department, Zhou Zhihua, introduced that the recent production of lab diamonds exceeds demand, and orders for the next six months have already been signed and deposits have been received. Now no longer develop new customers, no longer accept new orders. Now looking for us to sign a contract with many more customers, the current sales situation of lab diamonds is a serious shortage of supply.

Subsequently, in a man made diamond processing enterprise in Shangqiu City, Henan Province, technical workers will be transported to the rough diamond according to the clarity, size and other standards after grading, through manual scribing, machine scribing to determine the appropriate cutting shape, after which the rough diamond cutting, polishing, cleaning, and finally get a bright diamond.

The general manager of this processing company said that the factory can produce about 100 carats of loose diamonds a day. This year, the factory will expand its production scale, and plans to recruit about 80 people to join the diamond polishing process in the near future.

The data shows that the listed companies related to cultivating diamonds are not doing well in 2021. Power Diamond's 2021 net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies increased by 228.17% year-on-year; Yellow River Cyclone is expected to turn a loss into a profit in 2021, achieving a net profit of 41 million yuan; CCBC Red Arrow is expected to see a 63.90%-78.47% year-on-year increase in net profit attributable to the mother company.

CITIC Capital light industry, textile and clothing chief analyst Ye Le said, cultivate the diamond's biggest competitive advantage or price, in terms of product quality, cultivate the diamond is not inferior to the natural diamond. Lab diamonds can rise in the future in the country, mainly depends on the brand side of the promotion, mainly on the guidance of consumer awareness.