Jade investment trends

Chinese traditional jade culture is the driving force behind the development of jadeite. As soon as jadeite came into China, it was endowed with the spiritual connotation of traditional Chinese jade culture, contained China's unique cultural implications, inherited people's good wishes, and deeply hidden a kind of accumulated national emotions and aesthetic orientation, and was hailed as the "King of Jade".

Today, what I am going to talk about is the development trend and collection value of the "King of Jade" - Jadeite.

1. Development trend of jadeite

Although China's jewelry industry started relatively late, with the relaxation of policies, the jewelry industry has developed rapidly and has become the world's second largest jewelry processing country. Entering the 21st century, China's jade market entered the fast lane and became the world's largest jade market. As early as 2005, my country's jewelry market ranked among the top in the world with a total sales of approximately 140 billion yuan and exports of 5.49 billion US dollars.

Over the past 30 years, the price of jade has been rising steadily, and sales have been getting better and better, increasing at a rate of about 20-30% each year. It has been nicknamed "crazy stone".

However, since the end of 2011, the jade market has shown signs of sluggish sales and the craze is no longer there. However, careful investors have discovered that the current mid- and low-end markets are declining, while high-end jadeite raw stones and finished products are maintaining a stable trend. According to authoritative statistics, the total sales volume of jadeite fell by 11.3% last year, of which low-grade jadeite fell by 38.2%. However, high-end jadeite has not only not dropped in price, but has increased by more than several times and is still a popular commodity in the market.

The jade market has experienced a spiral development process of recovery, revitalization, rise, decline, and rise again. Because of this, many investors are not pessimistic about the current severe situation, and they are very strategic about their investment in jade. Because in the long run, the investment and collection of jade is on an upward trend, which is the consensus of most people.

According to historical records, ever since jadeite went global and became part of the world's precious jewelry trade, its price has skyrocketed. Among all precious jewelry and jade, only high-grade and top-grade jadeite has not been affected by the world economic depression. From the mid-1980s to the present, the price of top-grade jadeite has skyrocketed thousands of times. Moreover, compared from all aspects, the jade industry has grown better than non-ferrous metals and has a brighter future.

At present, due to the successive downturns in the stock market and real estate, idle capital from all over the society will inevitably flow into the jade industry in large quantities in the future, and a new round of investment boom is brewing in the national jade market. The reasons are:

1. Resource depletion boosts the jade industry

The only origin of jade raw materials in the world is Myitkyina in Myanmar. In the past 10 years, the amount of jade mined in Myanmar has exceeded the total development volume in the past 300 years. Every year, 90% of the jadeite raw stones and 80% of the high-grade jadeite raw stones produced in Myanmar flow into China. As mineral resources gradually become depleted, the Myanmar government has begun to restrict the mining and export of raw jade, which will inevitably lead to more and more people rushing to buy jade. It can be predicted that in the near future, the appreciation potential of jade will even far exceed that of diamonds. Data shows that in the public auction of rough jadeite in Naypyidaw, Myanmar last year, the rough jadeite with a reserve price of tens of thousands of yuan was sold at dozens of times the price.

The limited mining at the place of origin and the increasing scarcity of high-end raw materials have made a large number of modern wealthy people and white-collar workers created by the rapid development of China's economy feel that high-end jade collection is "hard to come by". With the continuous improvement of living standards, even the working class, which has a large and wide consumer group, has a substantial increase in consumer demand for medium and low-end jade. Considering that the domestic demand for mid- to high-end jade will grow rapidly in the next five years, the insufficient supply of raw materials will cause a sharp increase in the prices of finished jade jewelry and handicrafts.

2. Jade culture boosts the jade industry

China has had the custom of appreciating, worshipping and collecting jade since ancient times. Since the Neolithic Age, certain jade artifacts have become symbols of social morality, customs, gods, wealth and power. Jade items with auspicious and evil-repelling properties are applied to figures, animals, flowers, birds, and some texts. Folk legends and myths are also used as themes. With the help of metaphors, similes, puns, symbols, homophones and other expressive techniques, a pattern is formed, which is given auspicious meaning. Auspicious language is used to express the inner feelings, and people's pursuit of happiness, longevity, joy and peace are placed on their beautiful wishes. Confucius, the most holy teacher, endowed jade with the "five virtues" to represent the beauty of humanity, and attached the warm and smooth stone to represent the highest state of being a human being. The Chinese nation's custom of using and worshipping jade is the driving force behind the continued development of the jade market.

3. Investment concepts support the jade industry

With the strong development of China's economy and the improvement of people's living standards, spiritual needs have been placed first. There is a large demand for investment from high-income people and a demand for upgraded gifts. Jade has unique value of preservation and appreciation, and the trend of collecting and appreciating it is prevalent across the country. Jade has become an indispensable part of contemporary people's pursuit of material life.

From the market perspective, jade is not only appreciated and collected as a work of art, but it also contains great investment opportunities. Over the past 30 years, jade has appreciated by an average of 30% to 50% each year, with high-end jade appreciating by more than 1,000%, and some special jadeite appreciating even more. Therefore, under strong inflation expectations, it is very suitable for long-term investment. Currently, more and more investors are turning their attention to jadeite investment and collection, because jadeite has tremendous potential for value preservation and appreciation.

Judging from the situation at last year's auctions, there is still a certain gap between the jewelry transaction volume and that of major international companies such as Christie's and Sotheby's, where a single jewelry auction can reach a turnover of up to 100 or 200 million yuan. Therefore, according to the analysis of relevant economists, with the development of my country's economy, the market and collection space for jewelry jadeite is still very large. Currently, less than 20% of the market has been developed, and 80% remains untapped.

2. The collection value of jadeite

It is understood that in the early 1990s, housing prices in most cities were around 1,000 yuan per square meter and have risen to around 8,000 yuan per square meter now, a 6-8 times increase; the price of gold was around 300-500 US dollars per ounce and has risen to around 1,700-1,900 US dollars per ounce now, more than 5 times; and as for jade, an ordinary jade pendant has increased from three or five yuan to three or five hundred yuan now, a 100-fold increase. An ice bracelet used to cost a few hundred yuan, but now the starting price is 300,000 to 500,000 yuan, and ice fluorescent bracelets cost millions of yuan. It can be seen that the price of mid-to-high-end jadeite has increased by more than a thousand times and is still rising.

In contrast, in the secondary market, despite the financial downturn, the jewelry and jade sector still highlights people's current high enthusiasm for jade collection. At the jadeite special session of Beijing Yirong Autumn Auction last year, a top-quality jadeite egg-shaped necklace in the jewelry jadeite special session took the top spot in the special session and achieved a transaction price of 15.64 million yuan. At this year's Hong Kong Sotheby's "Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite Jewelry" spring auction, a natural jadeite necklace from the collection of legendary socialite Barbara Hutton started at 88 million Hong Kong dollars and was finally sold for 214 million Hong Kong dollars, which shocked all collectors present.

Good raw materials are becoming increasingly scarce, while the demand for jade is constantly increasing. The price of jade will continue to rise, but not all jade has good collection prospects. In just two or three decades, the development trend of jade collection has also undergone significant changes - "as long as it's green, it's fine" in the 1980s; "the greener the better" in the 1990s; and "good quality and fine workmanship" in the 21st century. The requirements for collection are getting higher and higher. On the premise that the material is full and complete and the shape is regular, jadeite with bright and uniform green color and delicate and warm texture is the most valuable for collection.

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