De Beers May Sight Sells Diamonds 4% Pricier
Post Date: 17 May 2013 Viewed: 356
One week ago, diamond giant De Beers conducted its Sight for the month of May, where they sold $600 million of rough diamonds they extracted at prices approximately 4% higher than they had at their previous Sight in April, Rough and Polished reports. Box adjustments were partially responsible for the price increase, but so were increases in list prices on a number of items.
When tabulating the 4% price increases and the broker fees incurred, many Indian diamond traders found that the 5% margin they used to earn by reselling De Beers diamonds on the secondary market has been all but shaved off, and in some cases they have actually lost money on the deals. As a result, some sightholders have taken to holding on to their stocks and manufacturing the polished diamonds themselves.
The price increase was especially frustrating to some, according to Rough and Polished, seeing as it came on the heels of a 3% price increase at the April sight.