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Colored Gemstone
Tourmaline Trends
Overall business was good at the AGTA GemFair at JCK Las Vegas and tourmaline was the star of the show.
By Mark Lepage
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While exhibitors expressed conflicting opinions about the strength of attendance at the 2014 American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) GemFair at JCK Las Vegas, which ran from May 29 to June 2, most agreed that tourmaline was the biggest news at the show. “You can absolutely say that tourmaline is the 100 percent rock ‘n’ roll story of this GemFair,” said Mike Romanella, co-owner of Commercial Mineral Company, Inc. of Scottsdale, Arizona. “Eighty percent of our sales were in tourmaline — in all colors — and the bigger the better. We were selling 5- to 10-carat stones. Our buyers wanted 20 to 30 carats, but there just aren’t that many stones of that size around.”
This year’s GemFair was held in adjoining basement convention rooms in the Mandalay Bay, with approximately 350 exhibition booths showcasing their gems in the desert. And while sapphires and emeralds were still hot commodities, Itamar Pimenta, owner of Pentagon Gem in Los Angeles, explained that tourmaline was the most popular stone at the show because it’s less expensive than most other stones, and Chinese buyers crave it.
“Yes, tourmaline is hot,” Pimenta said. “Demand has driven up the price for sapphires. And what I heard is that somebody, somewhere in China put the word out for people to buy color, because it will bring them good luck.”
It is generally agreed that China has been the game changer in the current gemstone market, with a developing moneyed Chinese middle class exhibiting growing sophistication. The Chinese appetite for colored gemstones is burgeoning, although as recently as seven years ago, America was the world’s largest market. “Now, China is buying larger stones,” commented Pimenta. He was selling tourmaline at $60 to $200 per carat, and sold $75,000 worth of stones 10 carats and up at the show. Surprisingly, Americans represented only 5 percent of his buyers. “Americans used to pay $35 to $100 a carat and now, at $200, they don’t understand what the heck is going on with the prices,” he said.
Chinese, Indian and Russian buyers were most prominent at GemFair. “Independents are the serious buyers,” said Pimenta, as opposed to companies making purchases. “A large number of individual Chinese buyers don’t want to spend, they want to pay less than you did for the stone.”
Others were selling even larger, higher-quality and more expensive tourmaline stones. Gurpreet Singh, co-owner of New York City’s S&S Gems, stated. “Americans cannot afford this high-quality price point for tourmaline, at $600 a carat, and the Chinese want big stones, 15 carats and up,” he said.
According to Romanella, the Chinese are “picky buyers. They want clean stones. But in a broader sense, it’s my understanding that they have a superstition about good luck, and tourmaline is believed to bring it.” Indeed, the stone has been prized in China since the Empress Dowager Tz’u Hsi of the late-nineteenth century favored pink tourmaline.
Overall, exhibitors claimed buyers were reluctant to spend and were not buying inventory. “I think attendance has been poor this year,” said Arthur P. Groom, owner of Eternity Natural Emerald in Ridgewood, New Jersey. “And we do shows all over the world — Hong Kong, six in China. People in Las Vegas were browsing, they didn’t have their hands in their pockets.” Groom had a $25,000-per-carat, 16-carat emerald on display, which did not sell but was recently sent overseas on consignment.
Peter Pereira, co-owner of Mobu Gems in Los Angeles, agreed. “Traffic is slow, compared to 2013. People are browsing — nobody seems ready to buy.” Jonathan Gad, co-owner of Gad Enterprises in New York City, said, “Attendance is, in my opinion, lower than in previous years. I think business in general in the U.S. is down. Emeralds are still selling, but prices are firm. They are pricey due to market instability in Colombia, and a lack of material.”
While the AGTA did not scan or register its own attendance figures at this JCK-run show, AGTA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Doug Hucker took a broad, positive view. From his perspective, the 2014 GemFair was very successful. “It’s been a slow slog back for the past couple of years” after the economic collapse of 2008. “But people are coming back. We had a fantastic Tucson,” he said, referring to the AGTA GemFair there in February. “Across the board, there is a sense that business is steady, but not exploding. People here in Las Vegas were buying judiciously, but they were buying,” Hucker said, noting that GemFair was the third-most-visited pavilion of the ten at JCK.
But the residual slackness in the global economy remains and it affects gem sales. “Really, gemstones will be one of the last things that feel the effect of the economy coming back,” said Amit Bhansali of BTC Gems Inc. in New York City. “It’s one of the first purchases that gets cut, because it’s a luxury.”Article from the Rapaport Magazine - July 2014. To subscribe click here.
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