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DeBeers Won't Raise Diamond Prices For Now.
World number one diamond company De Beers Group said Tuesday that the rough diamond market is currently struggling, but retail sales remain strong.
As a consequence, the company isn't planning to raise diamond prices in the near future. "It depends on how the market goes," De Beers Chairman Nicky Oppenheimer told Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of Anglo American PLC's (AAUK) annual general meeting.
Anglo American, the diversified natural resources group, is a 45% shareholder in De Beers. The Oppenheimer family owns 40% of the company, with the government of Botswana owning the balance.
The diamond market is "in two places at the moment," said Oppenheimer.
Interest-rate rises worldwide have precipitated a "greater strain" on rough diamond demand. "But as long as retail remains good the pull-through will take place in due course," said Oppenheimer. "I think our market's fine at the end of the day."
De Beers mines 40% of the world's rough diamonds. Its sales and marketing arm, the Diamond Trading Company, markets about 45% of the world's diamonds.
De Beers made a small increase in the diamond price in February, said Oppenheimer, but it hasn't moved since then.
Consumers Pay attention. This lull won't last long.
