Hong Kong June show ended on a soft note

The first day witnessed some traffic from Mainland China. On Friday, when the protest for withdrawal of China extradition bill started again in the city with the rumor of the same getting intense over the weekend, most buyers did their work and left. Those who planned to visit HK over the weekend for the show didn’t turn up – it was just a matter of wrong timing.

The June Show since 2012 was doing pretty well and was increasing in size and numbers, in terms of the companies participating as well. However, since last year the show has become weaker and 2019 was especially challenging as many companies are rethinking on their participation – eventually they will reduce their booth size or they will completely leave the show.

In terms of coloured stones, Zambian emeralds and morganites were doing well at the show while the remaining semiprecious stones saw a weak demand. Diamonds saw a mixed response as well – buyers were seen fishing for the cheapest deals as they believed that exhibitors were desperate to sell given the current scenario.

One of the diamond exhibitors said, “I don't mind selling at a less price but at least there should be buyers coming and asking for it. I have four booths and next year I will surely reduce it to two.”

Lab grown diamond exhibitors had decent enquiries but whether they were converting into sales or not is a question mark. They were all scattered across Hall 5 so judging the response was quite difficult.

Jewellery in general was also weak, the traffic was only in the Japan Pavilion where people were looking for bargain deals on second hand jewellery.  Grand hall exhibitors said they are not looking for traffic but they want quality buyers. A few very happy but most of them were still waiting for the right connect till the last hour.

Overall the show was very slow, raising a big question for its future.