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Photo courtesy of Alrosa.

ROUGH DIAMOND MARKET APPEARS TO BE MAKING A RECOVERY WITH PRICES ONCE AGAIN ON AN UPWARD CLIMB

 

After months on a slow burner, the rough diamond market appears to be roaring back. Reporting its results for the final three months of 2020, Alrosa, Russia’s state-controlled rough diamond mining company, has announced a 240 percent quarter-on-quarter increase in sales to 17 million carats, which also was 110 percent more than the figure reported for the same quarter in 2019, before the start of the global pandemic.

Alrosa’s fourth quarter rough sales included 12.2 million carats of gem-quality diamonds. The healthy total was said to be the result of recovering demand from both the midstream and end consumers.

Still, the Russian company’s fourth quarter diamond production decreased by 23 percent quarter-on-quarter to 7.1 million carats, but this was attributed to to seasonality, as well as planned maintenance at one of Alrosa’s key processing plants.

The effects of the COVID crisis were more evident in its year-end totals, however. Production was down 22 percent to to 30 million carats, while sales of rough diamonds equaled

32.1 million carats.

 

DE BEERS INSTITUTES PERCENT AVERAGE PRICE INCREASE

Another clear indication that the rough diamond market was moving into a recovery stage was news that De Beers has raised prices by about 5 percent at its first sale of the year. According to a Bloomberg news report, the increases mostly applied to stones larger than 1 carat in size.

Except in very unusual circumstances, De Beers usually does not announce price changes, although Bloomberg noted that this is probably one of the steepest increases since the early part of last decade. A spokesman for mining company, unsurprisingly declined to comment.

In its end of the year sales report, Alrosa reported that the average price index gained 2 percent during Q4. Over the full course of the year, the average price index had declined by about by 10 percent.

Like its De Beers, Alrosa focused much of its effort to support the market through the COVID crisis by reducing overburdened inventories in the cutting and polishing sectors. What this achieved was reducing pressure on rough producers, while at the same time not devaluing the stocks that its clients were holding.

During the the early stages of the pandemic, the mining companies either curtailed production or stockpiled it, which in Russia’s case was helped by support provided by Gokhran, the Russian government repository for precious materials.

The survey was conducted on behalf of the natural Diamond Council, which advances natural diamonds’ desirability by publishing in-depth features and trend reports, and sharing resources and information with consumers.

Large Indian cutters began operating at 70 percent to 90 percent of their capacity during the fourth quarter of 2020, and are expected to reach 100 percent capacity during the first quarter of the new year.

FACTORS CITED FOR THE ROUGH MARKET RECOVERY

The recovery of the rough diamond market is largely being attributed to strong holiday sales both in the United States and and China, coupled with a shortage of stock held by the midstream.

Also cited as a contributory factor is India’s cutting and polishing industry’s collective decision to increase diamond production as the epidemiological situation allowed COVID-19 restrictions to be eased. Large cutters began operating at 70 percent to 90 percent of their capacity, and the nation’s traditional Diwali celebration this year was shorter than usual.

Diamond stocks in the cutting sector remained unchanged, which helped prices for polished diamonds to recover and stabilise at pre-COVID-19 levels as jewelry demand rebounded in the second half of the year. By the end of the year, demand for rough diamonds was strong and stable.

In early 2021, Alrosa predicts that cutters and polishers will their diamond production to 100 percent capacity in anticipation of stable orders during the first quarter, as jewelry businesses and dealers seek to replenish inventories they sold during the holiday season and due to market activity ahead of the Chinese New Year.

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