Liệu De Beers sẽ phá sản?

do kim cương giờ có thể sản xuất trong phòng thí nghiệm tràn lan

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One of the world’s most popular types of rough diamonds (kim cương thô) has plunged into a pricing free fall, as an increasing number of Americans choose engagement rings made from lab-grown stones instead.

…the scale and speed of the pricing collapse (sụp đổ) of one of the diamond industry’s most important products has left the market reeling (quay cuồng).

…De Beers has cut prices in the category by more than 40% in the past year…The impact on De Beers was clear…first half profits plunged more than 60% to just $347 million, with its average selling price falling from $213 per carat to $163 per carat.

The puzzle, however, is why has it taken so long? The diamond market does have some peculiar features. Buyers of engagement rings (nhẫn đính hôn) don’t necessarily benefit from lower-prices per se as a diamond ring is a signal. If the cost of the signal goes down, people need to spend more to send the same message. An inexpensive engagement ring is thus something of a contradiction (mâu thuẫn) in terms, so price shopping is less intense. Nevertheless, the early buyers of lab-grown diamond rings should still benefit because the rings can’t be distinguished by the naked eye. Neither the bride, nor her friends, have to know the $10,000 ring only cost $5,000, right? Right?

Well maybe not right. DeBeers also produces lab-grown diamonds and they have a very strange pricing strategy (chiến lược định hình giá):

De Beers started selling its own lab-grown diamonds in 2018 at a steep discount to the going price, in an attempt to differentiate between the two categories. The company expects lab-grown prices to continue to tumble, in what it sees as a tsunami of more supply coming on to the market, Rowley said. That should create an even bigger delta in prices between natural diamonds and lab grown, helping differentiate (phân biệt) the two products, he said.