Price Hikes at DTC Sight 9

(IDEX Online News) - The diamond industry’s expectation for stable prices has evaporated in the cold London air. Contrary to earlier hopes, the Diamond Trading Company (DTC) raised prices by a single digit, according to early reports.

If accurate, this is a continuation of the price hike trend of the past few months. The single digit increase is reportedly a high single digit addition on some boxes. While still early to tell, however the assortments may have been improved as well. The price increase is most evident in the Indian goods.

Rio Tinto Diamonds is also holding a sales week. Together with the DTC and supplies from Angola, over half a billion dollars worth of goods is being brought into the market. At this point, it’s not known if RTD has also increased prices, but Angolan goods are also 2-3 percent pricier according to one account.

How will the secondary market react to the price change is not clear yet. Premiums on DTC boxes may remain largely unchanged and by that the price hike will be simply past to those buyers, or premiums may shrink and leave prices unchanged in the secondary market.

The price adjustments come just a month after industry leaders met in Mumbai and voiced concern over the high price of rough diamonds. But the understanding that prices need to ease is viewed as mostly academic.

While the banks in India are closing in on a number of diamond firms for failure to pay more than $450 million in loans, Indian buyers are still willing to pay high prices to ensure that their polishing facilities keep working.