Who stirs the emerald?

Although there is no official and authoritative statistical data, the industry generally believes that from the beginning of this year until now, the price of jadeite has generally risen by 30% to 50%, and the top quality jadeite has soared by 100% to 200%. Hard to find. Although the title of “hot money stir-fried jade” is often used in newspapers, the story behind “crazy stone” is far from simple.

"Flour is too expensive for bread"

Li Bo has been operating the Jade business for more than 10 years. His shop is located in a famous professional art market in Beijing's North Third Ring Road. There are many businesses that specialize in jade jade. He was a bit depressed lately. "Buyers think that now the price of jade has risen so much that we should make a lot of money. In fact, the business is also very painful." Li told China Economic Weekly, "My sales are similar to the past. But profits are getting lower and lower."

When the reporter was in the boss's shop, there was just one regular customer to look at the bracelet. The guests are very satisfied with the bracelet, but because the psychological price difference between the two parties is too far to complete the deal. "This bracelet and the one I bought before you should be just a batch of goods. The price can't be so much worse!" The guests complained, and sent the word "treasure" to the public.

Li's boss was wronged. He told reporters that the bracelet and the one the guest bought half a year ago was indeed a batch of goods, and the cost price was similar. "I could have sold this colored bracelet in the past 50,000 yuan, but now I'm also a bit reluctant to pay 100,000 yuan. It seems that my profits are more, but I'm holding this 100,000 yuan and I just can't get into that. The current market is that flour is more expensive than bread.”

Li Bo told reporters that Jade's cost price mainly has three parts: First, the original stone price; Second, the cost; Third, the operating costs of the shop. “Although the cost has risen, it hasn’t been very bad. The main reason is that the price of rough rock has gone up too high, especially good material, and it has gone up so far.” Li said. “The bracelet doesn’t have any work. It rose the most."

Reporters also made small-scale investigations. Like Li, it is not a small number of businesses that “haven't gotten into or can't afford good goods and dare not easily sell good goods”.

“The merchant’s purchase cost has increased a lot, virtually increasing the threshold, but the consumer’s ability to accept hasn’t improved a lot at once, so the profit margins left by businesses are getting smaller and smaller. Now, many businesses that have no strength have closed down. Or, to change to other jade, more is to sell 'work' mainly. " Wan Ruixiang jade club founder and chief appreciation expert Wan Hao told "China Economic Weekly."

What Wan Xi said is "a kind of activity" is what the emerald industry calls the merchants' money-making goods. It usually refers to the ungraded or colorless, general-quality jade, and even worse quality is called "junk cargo." “At present, the most powerful rise is the top-quality, collector-class jadeite. For example, the glass species is full of green, and the increase rate is astonishing. However, the increase in activity is not significant, and there is almost no increase in junk shipments.” Say it.

Myanmar's public record "break record"

Wan Hao believes that the reason why the Jade Market presents its current situation is mainly due to two reasons: First, it comes from the buyer. Since ancient times, China has had the tradition of “collecting gold from troubled times and collecting jade from the heights of prosperity.” Nowadays, there are more and more people gathering jadeite. “Emerging jadeite collection is easy, because true and false is better, it can be almost 100% accurate, and other collection categories are more or less difficult to distinguish.”

The second is from the seller. One of the most important features of the Jade Market is the single source of raw materials, and the world has only Myanmar. The shipment of Burmese jadeite is on an annual basis (Burma's management of jadeite resources is strict and can only be traded through the government's "public auction").

"Actually, the soaring price of raw materials began in 2009, but it is reflected in the retail market that it takes a certain period of time to conduct, and may lag behind for 3-6 months," Wan said.

“From the 4th round of public trading in 2009, the annual price of jadeite raw materials rose by 30%. The two rounds of public trading that have been carried out in 2010 have made the momentum of growth even stronger.” Jade Branch Secretary-General, China Jewellery & Jade & Jewelry Industry Association Yan told China Economic Weekly.

According to Austrian Rock, in the first public trading session in March this year, when the amount of raw materials was relatively flat and high-grade materials were relatively reduced, the total transaction volume soared from the previous one billion to 3.0 billion, and the number of visitors was 3,000. In previous years, there were only more than 1,000 people; in July, when the number of raw materials was flat and there were fewer high-quality materials, the turnover reached 7 billion, and the number of people entering the market was a record-breaking number of more than 5,000.

“The increase in the price of jadeite raw materials will inevitably lead to an increase in the price of jadeite finished products. This rise is a full-scale increase, but good, high-end varieties have increased even more,” said Austrian rock.

The price of Myanmar's public market has always been seen as a benchmark for the price of the jade market, so whether it is ten thousand, or Austrian rock, continue to look forward to the price of jade. "From the history of the development of jadeite jade, its price has been rising, and in the better economic environment, the faster the rate of rise," said Austrian rock.

Due to the introduction of mechanized mining methods, the amount of jadeite mining in Myanmar over the past 20 years is equivalent to 10 times the sum of the previous 300 years of exploitation. Myanmar is the home base of the world's jade. More than 90% of the world's jade is produced in Myanmar, and the top jade is produced only in Burma.

It is generally estimated by the industry that with the current rate of exploitation, the jadeite in Myanmar can only be mined for another 10 to 20 years, and now some high-grade good materials have been almost completely mined, such as the famous green glass raw stone at the pit of Munna. It has long been used, but there are still some stocks in the hands of individual Myanmar miners.

“The price increase in the future is certain. At least there is no doubt at least this year.” Wan Hao suggested that in the current market situation, the collection must be carefully selected. Buying and buying quality goods has two major directions: First, Top quality, such as the old pit of Muona, glass with green. "But now such things are generally unaffordable to the people, because almost all are millions," she said.

The second direction is suitable for general investors. "It is not necessarily very good, but the work is very characteristic. This type of jade is currently a depression. I believe that the rise in future costs will certainly exceed the increase in raw material prices." Say.

Jade in "compensation up"?

The depletion of old ore raw materials and the poor quality of new ore raw materials are the main reasons for the high quality jadeite shortage and the soaring prices. However, the sudden rise in the price of jadeite, behind the normal logic, is undeniably linked to “hot money” and “investors”.

An industry insider who participated in the two Myanmar public figures this year told reporters that he saw a lot of new faces in the public market. “They are mostly industrial capitals in Zhejiang, Fujian, and Shanxi.” For general speculation, “30 Millions of hot money into the jade market," his estimate is more bold, "absolutely more than this number, there are more than 10 billion, but not everyone has shot."

On June 24 of this year, Shantou Airport launched six charter flights to Yangon, Myanmar within a day. This is a “grand event” that Shantou Airport has never had for 36 years since its flight. Passengers on board are basically jade investment from Guangdong. customer.

Apart from big speculators, the power of the masses cannot be ignored.

“In the past, people used jadeite to wear it. Nowadays, more and more people buy it mainly for investment. In the past one or two years, the number of investors who used to buy it has soared to around 50%.” Wan Hao said.

In the past year or two, Wan Hao has often encountered some new buyers. He has not been in contact with jade before, and he is not even able to distinguish between true and false. He only heard that the appreciation of jade is very fast and he took a few million. , said to buy jade "Tuen". Every time ten thousand will advise them to fully understand the characteristics of jade and the market, and then start to buy.

Such a strong and typical “stir-fried” smell makes people have to worry about whether or not Jade will repeat the mistakes of “Puer Tea” that had been a hit in previous years. Austrian Rock believes that the comparability of the two is not great.

“The value basis and social identity of jade and pu-erh tea are incomparable. Emerald is a non-renewable resource product, its beauty, scarcity and durability, its historical accumulation for hundreds of years, it can add The art of craftsmanship and humanistic values ​​all determine its high value and social identity, and because of its characteristics, people have a great expectation and tolerance for its price range. Even if it continues to rise, the public will Its value is still understandable and identifiable, and Pu'er is intrinsically not of such high value and therefore cannot be compared with jadeite," he said.

Wan Hao also believes that although the speculators played a role in fueling the market, the jadeite market did not have a bubble, and it was more of a compensatory growth.

“Actually, in all kinds of collections, jadeite is the latest in price hikes. From 2003 onwards, Chinese painting and calligraphy rose sharply first, followed by the Ming and Qing kiln porcelain. After 2005, Chinese oil paintings began to rise sharply. New work white jade and white jade raw materials also appeared in the hot market. Jade began to rise sharply in early 2009." She said.

As for the latest reason for the rise of the jadeite market, Wan Hao thinks there is no hype. "In this trip, you can speculate without money, because there is no secondary market for Jadeite, and it is difficult to realise it. It's not realistic to think about fast-forward and fast-grocery speculation," she said.

Knowing Jade, the quality and value of Jade from the species, water and color are mainly judged from three aspects: species, water, and color:

The species refers to the fibrous structure of jadeite. The more uniform the grain size is, the finer the structure is, the better. The grades can be roughly classified into glass species, ice species, oil species, and bean species. Glass species is the best in jade.

Water refers to the transparency of jadeite, generally divided into transparent, more transparent, translucent, slightly transparent and opaque. The higher the transparency of jade, the higher the value.

Color refers to the color of jade, common green, red, violet, white, etc., of which the best green.

In the jadeite industry, there is generally a saying that “the appearance of an amateur is to see the colors, and the experts are to look at the species”. The appreciation of a good jadeite has the largest space, such as the top glass species and the ice species. In the past decade or so, a good, well-watered emerald, even if it is colorless or color is not good enough, the appreciation is very fast, and the price has even increased nearly 100 times. On the contrary, some particularly green varieties, such as “Tielongsheng”, are completely opaque and have almost no appreciation.