The R&M “Lettre”

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.”

Global diamond jewelry demand rose 2.9 percent year on year to $81.4 billion in 2014, according to industry insight data published by De Beers on Friday, the 20th of March.

Millennials spend more on jewelry than any other age group Press Release – A report released today by Edahn Golan Diamond Research & Data reveals that for the first time, millennials have spent more than any other age group on fine jewelry.

Diamond market overview The main focus in the dealer market over the past week was on the Hong Kong jewellery trade show March 4 – 8, which failed to meet dealer’s expectations.

The diamond market is being greatly influenced by economic sentiment. A far cry from the supply-driven market that it once was, today, short-term diamond trading is largely driven by macroeconomic factors.

Among the many landmark developments evolving in the industry this year is that China is changing.