IDEX Polished Price Index: The Decline Continues in May
June 06, 24
(IDEX Online) - The IDEX Polished Price Index continued its downward trend through May, with a fall of 1.02 per cent.
That compares with 0.59 per cent in April, which seemed to indicate prices may be stabilizing.
But markets remain weak as uncertainty persists - over the future of De Beers, the next phase of Russian sanctions, China's recovery (or lack thereof), the rise and apparent fall of the lab grown, not to mention global economic woes, inflation, interest rates and ongoing weak demand from consumers. You could also throw a bit of cyber-insecurity into the mix, following the hack on Christie's which may have cause little actual damage, but raises very real concerns in terms of "who's next?" There may also have been something off a lull before the JCK storm.
The De Beers saga kicked off on 24 April when Australian miner BHP announced plans for a takeover of parent company Anglo American. The bid failed but prompted Anglo to put the (loss-making) 136-year-old miner up for sale to focus on copper and other more profitable operations.
Meanwhile De Beers is raising questions about the practicality of G7 sanctions on Russian goods, due to include goods of 0.50-cts and above from 1 September. It says the sunrise period for the new rules should be extended for another year.
The Index remains in overall decline despite a slight bounce last November and December.
In a broader historical context, the Index is now at its lowest point in the 13 years shown in the graph below.
Month-to-month prices were down by 0.9 per cent during May, a slightly better performance than in April, when they fell by 1.3 per cent. Prices fell consistently from April 2022 to October 2023.
Year-to-year prices fell 14. 2 per cent in May, the third month in a row when it has showed a slight improvement.
Month-to-month prices for most sizes shown below fell slightly during May. The exceptions were 5.0-cts goods which were up 4.2 per cent and 0.5-cts, which were up 0.2 per cent.
Year-to-year prices for May showed slight improvements among all goods shown, although prices have still been dropping, by as much as 16.6 per cent (for 1.5-cts).
Prices for goods of all sizes shown below fell during May for all sized except 0.50-cts and 5.0-cts. This was also the case in April.
