Good News! - December 2024
The supply of natural diamonds has been purposefully and strategically reduced. The result is price stabilization. Polished diamond prices have remained stable for the last two months and are beginning to rise, albeit slowly.
De Beers just dropped rough diamond prices by 10-15% and Alrosa has followed suit. This rough price reduction is well calculated not to affect the ongoing recovery of polished diamond prices.
Over the past year, De Beers and Alrosa have been decreasing rough diamond supply, while not reducing prices. The high rough diamond prices made it difficult for diamond cutters to reduce their polished prices. Now that polished diamond prices are stable, De Beers can confidently reduce rough prices and allow manufacturers to make a little profit. De Beers and Alrosas’ regular customers have been losing money for over a year, and even, at the current reduced prices, they are still paying about 10% over the prices achieved at smaller rough tenders.
Polished diamond supply and demand is more in balance than it has been during the past two years. Overproduction caused serious confidence issues. Weak prices hurt everyone involved with diamonds, and financial losses are forcing industry members to work cooperatively to remedy the situation. Diamond producing countries, miners and manufacturers, as a group, agreed to initiate inclusive initiatives directed to funding natural diamond marketing.
Diamond producing countries are partnering with miners. Miners and polishers are constructing a concrete plan to introduce a small tariff, less than a quarter percent, to be applied to all rough and polished diamonds as they proceed through different stages of the supply chain. The proceeds of this tariff, which could be hundreds of millions of dollars, will go directly to theNatural Diamond Council for generic marketing.
De Beers has already started category marketing with strategic retail partners in the United States, China and India. They are also creating educational sales and marketing packages for independent retailers. Al Cook, CEO of De Beers, explains the overall premise, “We need everyone to step up, to play their role, in marketing natural diamonds…It’s not enough for De
Beers and Botswana to lead. Right now, you can make margins in a lot of different (jewellery products). But we all know the health of our business, in the long term, is built on natural diamonds.”
At last! The natural diamond industry is awake and on the move! Consumers and retailers can feel a positive shift. Diamond prices are expected to continue recovering during 2025 … This is good news!
On behalf of everyone at Regal Imports, I wish you continued success, health, and happiness. We promise, on our part, to do everything in our power to present diamonds ethically, responsibly, honestly, and passionately! We understand that every diamond that we sell will be presented as ‘the most loving and emotional gift that one person can give to another’.
Mel Moss
