Soaring prices hit bullion exporters

“Due to rising prices of the yellow metal, to maintain demand in the global market, exporters are absorbing high input cost, which has left them with a wafer thin margin,” Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) Chairman Rajeev Jain said.

This apart, to maintain demand “exporters are trying to push silver jewellery. For that they are making designer jewellery in white metal which otherwise was made in gold only,” added Jain.

“Out of every 700 jewellery items, around 500 pieces are being crafted in silver these days. Silver prices are also rising but they can’t match the yellow metal’s rally,” he said.

With gold prices heading northwards, jewellers are increasingly opting for making ‘hybrid jewellery’ — a mix of gold and silver metals in equal proportion. “It not only helps in keeping a check on prices but also produces trendy jewellery items. Among fashion jewellery items, we are selling gold coated silver jewellery and affordable light weight trendy gold items,” said Sara Jewels Managing Director Ajay Kala.

However, this ‘gold rush’ is not likely to impact the growth of gems and jewellery exports. The council closed this fiscal year with a growth of 30 per cent over the last year. Emerging strongly from the global recession, it has clocked exports of around US$28 billion which is around 15 per cent of the country’s total exports of US$200 billion.

Meanwhile, gold and silver continued their record breaking spree at the bullion market during the week under review.

Silver gained heavily on sustained industrial buying as well as speculative build-up on the back of bullish global trend and spiked to a new milestone of Rs 64,845 a kg mark. It witnessed mild profit-taking for a couple of time during the beginning of the week.