Looking back on the madness of the 2010 jade industry in China

The past 2010 is a crazy year for the Chinese jade industry.

During the year, almost all of the stones originating in the northern part of Myanmar known as the emerald, from wool to finished products, continued to soar in price.

“Compared with the previous uptrend, the price of jadeite in the second half of the year has shown a 'jump up' on the basis of the original soaring.” Wang Xiaoyan, general manager of East Asian jewelry line at Ruili Jewelery Street, specifically described the current trend of jadeite prices to this reporter. Use such a word to describe.

In the Tengchong Lotus Sculpture Center, known as the “First Town of China's Jade”, Yin Chunlin, deputy chairperson of the Tengchong Jadeite Association and head of the sculpture center, told reporters that not long ago, the price of more than 1 million glasses per kilogram of jadeite rose to 300. Million/kg. Just two days later, Ke Wencong, executive vice president of the Ruili Jewellery & Jade Association, told reporters, “Glass species of jadeite raw materials, even if they bid 10 million yuan and 1 kilogram, they will not get the goods.”

Ke Wencong believes that at least at present, jade wool has become an absolute "crazy stone."

Myanmar: Sources soar

As a gem-quality jadeite stone, it is currently only produced in the area named Palankin in the northern state of Myanmar. According to the Burmese government regulations, the jadeite miners must submit the extracted jadeite stones to the Ministry of Geology and Mining of the Government of Myanmar or the Ministry of Mining of the Ministry of Military Affairs for centralized auction in the capital. This is what is commonly known as the Yangon bus.

According to industry estimates, jadeite raw materials sold through the public market account for about 70%-80% of the total jade produced in Myanmar. The public plate is generally held 4-6 times a year, hosted by the Myanmar government or the military. The proceeds from the auction are taxed by the government by 25%, and the remaining 75% are then converted into the owner's account in the form of Burmese currency at the prevailing exchange rate, and private transactions in jade are strictly prohibited in Myanmar.

In fact, the soaring price of jadeite has been reflected in the latest public price.

During this public trading period, among the many jade stones that set a high price, there was an ice-colored violet jade weighing about 580,000 euros weighing about 6 kilograms. The final auction price reached nearly 19 million euros, and the average price per kilogram was 33 million. yuan***. This move not only created a high price in Myanmar's public trading market, but also broke the highest transaction record of single-wool wool in Myanmar since its establishment in more than 40 years.

“Actually, the jade material of the public dish is not high in terms of quantity or quality compared with the previous period, but it not only creates the highest price for a single item, but also has 12 items worth more than 100 million yuan.** * It has also become the most recent public disk." Wang Xiaoyu, who participated in this public session, introduced it.

Wang Xiaolu said that on this public day, there were 8,866 transactions in 9,157 jade and 271 bids. 30% of the merchants went empty-handed and did not vote for jade. The merchants who voted in jade have won 1.8 bids per person. "The average bid price probably exceeds the target price by 30-50 times."

"The above situation shows that the winning bid rate is concentrated in large funds," Wang Xiaolu said.

In fact, the price of Myanmar's public market continued to push up in 2010. According to statistics, more than 10,000 pieces of jade raw materials were sold in March, and the transaction price was more than 3 billion yuan. In June, more than 12,000 pieces of jade raw materials were sold, and the transaction price was more than 7 billion yuan. By November In the public market, the raw materials for jade were reduced to 9,157 and the transaction price had reached 8.9 billion yuan***.

As the price of raw materials soared, along with the price transmission mechanism, the prices of all aspects of the entire jade industry have risen sharply.

“A lot of low-quality jadeite raw materials that were originally called waste materials may have more than doubled their prices last year, not to mention better raw materials.” said Lin Li, owner of Yunnan Ruili’s jewelry store in Nanyang, from her own jewelry store. Look, the bracelet that was priced between 2500 yuan and 5,000 yuan six months ago is now not bidding for 40,000 to 50,000, and certainly will not be shipped. For the top grade jadeite, the wind of reluctance to sell is spreading like a flu.

Yunnan: Water goes up

On January 12th, along with the freezing rain in the southern freezing rain, on the street of the market town center of Hehua Township in Tengchong near the Sino-Myanmar border in Yunnan, the reporter witnessed a rare scene of jadeite wool trades coming in via border smuggling channels. .

Several Burmese people with their dark skin and baskets removed seven or eight heavy woven bags from an agricultural vehicle, opened the bags, and divided the inside of the emerald wool into piles and hawked them in the street.

Since these raw materials were all raw stone that had not been cut, the onlookers were cautious. However, with a pile of more than 30 kilograms of wool being bought by a buyer at a price of 7,000 yuan without any bargaining, The next few piles will soon have new buyers, and prices will reach more than 10,000 yuan.

Li Xiang, an emerald sculpture workshop on the street nearby, told reporters that the raw materials just like that were only a few hundred pieces a year ago and have now risen to an incredible degree. Even so, it must be quick.

Called "The First Township of China's Jade", Hehua Township is the largest emerald carving and processing center in Tengchong, the emerald city. It gathers hundreds of people from the carving and processing industry to sip large quantities of emerald wool material every day.

“Since the price of emerald wool has increased several times within a year, many jadeite processors have turned to Huang Longyu, which has a relatively cheap raw material price,” said Zhang Zaihang, a director of the Tengchong Jade Association of Lotus Flower Engraving.

Zhang Zaihang said that, in fact, jadeite processors are always unacceptable for the way they purchase this gambling stone (unopened jadeite wool). The reason is that the risk is too high. However, due to the shortage of raw materials caused by rising prices, many people have to change their trading habits.

Mr. Liu is a native of Henan Province. He has been in Ruili for five or six years. Now there is an emerald carving workshop in the water park that employs seven workers. He said that with the soaring price of raw materials, the slightly better price of raw wool that had been opened was unacceptable, and he wanted to try his luck with gambling stone and he hoped to find something of value.

He said that the risks are basically controllable. On the one hand, the selling price is not very high. On the other hand, jade processing for many years also has considerable eyesight.

Difficult prices

Yin Chunlin, vice president of the Tengchong Jewelery and Jade Association, said that because of the skyrocketing prices, not only are the prices soaring, but also sellers are reluctant to sell.

He took out several pieces of pendants belonging to glass species, ice species, and pod species from the safe behind him and told reporters that similar top grade products of water had become rare in the future and would not easily be taken.

Yin Chunlin said that unlike other jade, jadeite has the uniqueness of origin, resource scarcity and non-renewability, so once the price goes higher, it will be difficult to turn back.

In fact, Yin Chunlin's above view has a wide recognition in the jadeite industry. The official vice president of the Ruili Jewellery Association, Ke Wencong, said outspokenly that he did not deny that the recent surge in jade prices caused a certain bubble in the price of jade. However, due to the strong demand and the shrinking reserve of raw materials, he looked Not "the reason for the bursting of the bubble."

“The original extraction of emerald wool was digging with a hoe, and then carrying a little bit of it out of the cave. Now the resources are gradually concentrated on the big bosses, and the mining method is also mechanized. It is said that the amount of jadeite extracted over the past 20 years is quite The total amount of exploitation in 300 years has been 10 times. Myanmar's existing resources are only enough for mining for seven or eight years." Ke Wencong believes that in the face of such a situation, the price rise of jadeite naturally has its own reason.

In addition, when it comes to another factor in the soaring price, Du Maosheng believes that the first step should be attributed to the involvement of large amounts of hot money. "There are both coal owners in Shanxi, Wenzhou real estate speculators, and local real estate developers and a large number of funds that are not optimistic about the stock market."

He said that according to his knowledge, some of the Tengchong jade masters had been asked by the above-mentioned people to “long-eyed” (ie to recognize jade).

Wang Xiaolu said that according to his analysis, this year's public trading can obviously find the shadow of large amounts of hot money.

"From the winning jade can be analyzed," said Wang Xiaoyao, because doing business, we must consider and calculate the cost and profit, while the hot money is "do not have to consider these."

According to the forecast of China Jewellery and Jade & Jewelry Industry Association, in 2010, the annual sales of jewelry in China will exceed 200 billion yuan***. In jewelry consumption, jade jade sales of about 40 billion yuan a year. Even if this figure is conservatively estimated, it will rise to more than 100 billion yuan in 2020, and resources will not be renewable. It is no wonder that hot money will be able to participate in the hype.

In addition, in terms of process prices, with the development of the times, processing costs, labor costs and other processing costs of the jade industry have risen more than before, which also contributes to the price increase of jade jewelry to some extent.

In the face of the current price of jadeite, Wang Chaoyang, a national-level engraver who has won great national influence in Ruili and won national awards, told this reporter that the 6 kilograms that were used for nearly 200 million yuan. Wool, he himself will not dare to attack, because, in order to make three pairs of bracelets, the price of each pair will reach 60 million yuan or more. How to comfortably carry out artistic creation "is indeed a problem."

Wang Chaoyang said that for the soaring price of jadeite, the premium raw materials are showing sky-high prices, and they have been brewing the “transaction method of selling jadeite products by weight” recently.

“Before this, there are precedents. For example, diamonds, crystals, and rubies are not all sold by weight?” Wang Chaoyang said.