HK Show Closes “In Line With Expectations,” Good Demand for Smaller Goods

As this year’s September Hong Kong Watch and Jewellery Fair moved into its final day, diamantaires were still busy trying to close deals and salvage what they could of a show that for some has been a disappointment and at best in line with their already low expectations.

Shai Belassen of D.B.S Diamonds Inc., part of DTC Sightholder the Salant Group, speaking generally, said 30 to 70 pointers are moving very well. “They are for local consumption and Asian customers are asking for them all the time.”

Rohit Domadia of Dharam Creations, part of Dharmanandan Diamonds, characterized the show as “good,” especially for GIA goods above 1 carat.

“There’s been good movement and enough people,” according to Haim Rabinovich from New York-based Finesse Diamonds. “We’ve had clients in from Asia and also made a number of sales to customers from the States.”

Emmanuel Landau, senior partner in Exelco, said there was a need for a price correction on sluggish bigger sizes. “We have to wait to see how the miners are going to react. We’ve already heard from the DTC that they are going to be firm on the price of rough [diamonds],” he said. “The big firms that can afford to hold on to their larger goods will keep them in their inventories, but the smaller firms will have to sell them relatively cheaply to pay the bills.”

Landau said that low colors and commercial and cleanish goods had been moving relatively well. “It’s still a question of price. Smaller dossier goods have been good, 1 to 3 carats have been a little weaker while upwards of 3 carats have been on the slow side.” He noted that demand outside of America and Europe was still there.

Alissa Goren, deputy managing director and chief marketing officer of the Israel Diamond Institute, said exhibitors were more concerned with a proposed move of diamond companies to the airport exhibition center next year, which many diamantaires are opposed to, than with the disappointing show. “When they are talking about the show,” she said, “they are saying that there has been a lot of traffic, a lot of sitting but not enough deal closing.”

Belassen, who saw few passersby at the converted parking lot where his booth was located, expects the rest of the year is going to be tough. “It’s going to be hard to sell all the goods whose prices went through the roof,” he said, summing up a situation that everyone knows to be true. How they deal with it remains to be seen.