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The European jewellery industry has been waiting for this winter season with a mixture of expectations and fear. 2015 is, according to consumer forecasts, a key year. The European Union is now out of the crisis, and bound to a low and steady growth in the long term.
Rapaport’s widely read Rapaport Weekly Market Comment is a carefully considered statement reflecting the Rapaport Group’s view on the market and important trends influencing the diamond trade during the previous week.
What a horrible year it was. Miners, traders and retailers will remember 2015 as the year of lost capital, walking on the cusp of bankruptcies, lost opportunities and diminishing value of diamonds. How did it happen, could it been avoided and what lessons can be drawn from it – short term and long?
Insights. Fifty years on from independence, Botswana still finds itself in desperate need of improvements in its economic diversity. Its unsustainable reliance on diamonds is the reason why.
Trading in the diamond market was quite brisk in August, with overseas buyers making their trip for their purchases; and the domestic buyers stocking up for the same reason and more…wedding season!
De Beers recently released its Diamond Insight Report, a report it prepares annually the covers the entire diamond jewelry pipeline from mine to market.
De Beers’ Diamond Insight Report, released this week, is built around one of its favorite topics: The long-term supply-demand outlook for the industry. “Industry fundamentals support long-term confidence in sector,” trumpeted its release.
A review of US consumer expenditure on fine jewelry in the past year is sobering at best. Americans are spending a lot less on jewelry, and this is a near across the board trend.
Don’t be fooled by the pitch that touts shortage as a reason for investors to plough dollars into the diamond mining sector. In fact, like many other commodities in the world today, the diamond industry is also drowning in a supply glut.
Pop quiz: Rough diamond prices were reduced at Sight 7 by: 13%, 9% or 5%? If you examine the price list, you’ll see that the price of some goods decreased by as little as 2.5%, whereas others were cut by as much as 20%.
The rough diamond market is now at a tipping point and De Beers must reduce its prices by 10 percent to 20 percent if the miner has any chance of restoring its own growth prospects – never mind diamond manufacturing profit.
If you are trying to see the half-full part of the glass, you’ll hear the voices that say that “De Beers finally got the message and lowered prices.”