China will likely remain the world’s largest consumer of platinum jewelry for a long time as it is a very young market and therefore still has a lot of room to grow, said precious metal fabricator Johnson Matthey Plc.

“We see China as the sustainable large platinum jewelry market because it is still in its infancy,” Peter Duncan, general manager of Johnson Matthey, told Dow Jones Newswires on November 17. “I think Chinese platinum jewelry demand will be around three-quarters of a million ounces and that will be the starting point it will grow from.”

China is the new Japan in terms of platinum jewelry consumption, Johnson Matthey added. “Japan has traditionally been the major consumer of platinum jewelry; it was the number one buyer of platinum for jewelry [fabrication] during the economic boom years,” noted Mr Duncan.

Courtesy of Jewellery News Asia Chinese Edition