Mozes Victor Konig- Diamonds, it’s all in the size?
A recent Bloomberg article suggests that Tiny Diamonds are suddenly all the focus:
“There’s a Buying Frenzy in Cheap and Tiny Diamonds”
De Beers raised the price of some of its cheapest rough diamonds by nearly 20% this week.
A surge in diamond demand that began in the early Covid lockdowns is showing no sign of easing, and now even the cheapest, smallest stones are getting caught up in a buying frenzy.
Low-end diamonds — the sort that you might find in jewelry displayed in a local WalMart — has been a tough business for most of the last decade. There’s been an oversupply of cheaper stones, which tend to be small and flawed, and anemic demand growth kept prices depressed and profit margins thin.
But the past three months have shown a sharp reversal as demand surged among U.S. consumers, who buy about half the world’s diamond jewelry, at the same time that the closure of one of the world’s biggest mines is putting pressure on supply.
In the rough-diamond market, the value of low-end stones has jumped dramatically. While that doesn’t automatically translate into similar increases on store shelves, prices may start ticking up for the cheapest diamond jewelry. More likely: the sparkles in that pair of bargain earrings will get a little smaller or more flawed as retailers look for ways to cut costs.
