The volume of the recently completed June website of the De Beers Group is estimated at $ 640 million, while maintaining a high demand for rough diamonds, Rapaport reports. The prices and assortment on the last site practically did not change in comparison with the previous site, although sightholders reported some minor changes in prices for individual boxes.
Some volumes of rough diamonds were delivered "in excess of the plan" - during the last week during the site demand grew, and diamond sales exceeded the volume of initial sightholder applications.
Although there is a healthy demand for raw materials, sightholders are concerned about the low margin of profit in the production of diamonds, due to the consistently high prices for diamonds, which do not correspond to the prices for diamonds. According to Rapaport News, since the beginning of this year, prices for raw diamonds have increased by 7-10%.
"It is very difficult to ensure a normal profit for this product," said one of the site's participants. - Sightholders used to buy raw materials, create added value and make profit after selling diamonds. However, now the De Beers pricing policy is such that only the most skillful sightholders can profit from the processing of stones. "
Despite this, according to Mike Aggett, CEO of the diamond broker H. Goldie & Company, the last site among sightholders was dominated by positive sentiment. Edgett noted in his blog that the volume of speculative transactions was very small due to the liquidity constraints affecting the diamond production sector.
According to the dealers, De Beers were sold on the secondary market with premiums of about 5%, while half of the goods were bought on credit. Some sightholders explained that the premiums on the secondary market were kept at a stable level, because diamond manufacturers wanted to provide their enterprises with raw materials in order to avoid interruptions in production against a background of a shortage of diamonds on the market.