SURAT, India (Commodity Online): With the Surat’s diamond industry showing robust growth in the past few months, diamond polishing units are now hunting for workers at their units as several of them had left the profession following the 2008 recession which hit the sector very badly.
Following the recession damaging the prospects of diamond units, around one lakh workers had left the diamond sector for textile mills fro craft work. Now, with the diamond industry showing signs of recovery, around 7,000 workers, who were designing exquisite embroidered sarees on computerised machines for the past 10 months, have returned to the sparkling world of diamonds.
The crash in the diamond industry had forced many jobless workers to take up jobs in the embroidery industry. Now, since the diamond industry is on the path of recovery, the workers want to return.
There is a reason behind the exodus of the diamond workers from the embroidery industry. First, the industry is passing through a rough phase following the decreased demand for embroidered saris and dress material from key markets like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Kolkata, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Secondly, the installed capacity of the embroidery industry has gone up from a mere 5,000 embroidery machines four years ago to over 50,000.
Diamond industry is facing a shortage of 60,000 diamond workers. Out of the two lakh diamond workers laid off last year, over 50,000 had found new jobs in the embroidery industry and many had returned to their hometowns in Saurashtra.
Surat is the world’s largest diamond processing zone. With demand for the diamonds rising, the diamond units may not be able to fulfil the export demand ahead of the Christmas season due to acute shortage of raw material.
Christmas export demand for polished diamonds is better this year against last year, but there is a shortage of raw diamonds due to fall in DeBeers’ output which is likely to be almost half this year.
De Beers diamond output in the first nine months of 2009 stood at 14.4 million carat, down 61.2% on year. Anglo American Plc holds 45% stake in De Beers, the world’s largest diamond mining company.
Surat diamond industry sources most of raw diamonds from De Beers through its marketing arm, Diamond Trading Company.
Source : commodityonline.com