De Beers said its rough diamond prices fell 5 percent this year even as the diamond market showed signs of a vast improvement.
Diamond prices declined from January to November, while prices of other commodities in the conglomerate’s portfolio rose significantly, Mark Cutifani, CEO of Anglo American, the parent company of De Beers, said in an analyst presentation (see here). Platinum prices increased 17 percent, copper prices 21 percent, while iron ore prices jumped 73 percent during the period.
“The diamond sector, on average, saw a strong recovery of value in the first quarter, recovering much of the lost ground from 2015, alongside the wider mining sector,” Kieron Hodgson, an analyst at Panmure Gordon & Co. wrote in a note preceding Anglo’s presentation. “While the absolute performance of diamonds has lagged peer commodities, we believe the longer term fundamentals remain robust for price appreciation, albeit with lower volatility.”
Photo © Courtesy of De Beers.
