The world’s largest diamond producer has broken with one of its longest-standing traditions. During its first sales cycle after reducing the number of approved buyers, De Beers implemented a significant cut to its official diamond prices, signaling that the era of defending price levels at all costs may be coming to an end.
The July sales cycle was the first held under the company’s new commercial contract. De Beers reduced the number of sightholders—its privileged customers with direct purchasing rights—from roughly 70 to around 45–50. The strategy is designed to concentrate the supply of rough diamonds among the industry’s strongest market participants.
For years, De Beers avoided publicly lowering its official price lists. Given the company’s dominant position in the diamond market, openly reducing prices risked undermining confidence across the entire industry. Instead, the company quietly offered discounts on selected assortments while keeping its published prices well above prevailing market levels. Depending on the product category, the gap between official prices and actual market values ranged from 5% to 50%.
That strategy has now changed. According to sources familiar with the matter, De Beers reduced prices across almost its entire product range during Monday’s sales event. The exact scale of the cuts is difficult to determine because the company switched earlier this year to consolidated invoice pricing rather than itemized pricing for individual assortments. Changes to product classifications have also made direct comparisons more difficult.
Buyers say the key outcome is clear: official prices are now much closer to those seen in the secondary market, where traders, manufacturers, and dealers buy and sell rough diamonds among themselves. Several factors have increased pressure on De Beers. Angola and other producers have continued supplying the market with large volumes of rough diamonds. U.S. tariffs and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have added further uncertainty. At the same time, weaker Chinese demand for luxury goods and growing consumer acceptance of laboratory-grown diamonds have pushed the industry into one of the deepest downturns in its history.
These developments come as the future of De Beers itself remains uncertain. Its parent company, Anglo American, is in the advanced stages of selling its diamond business after years of disappointing financial performance and growing pressure from investors.
By cutting its official prices, De Beers has acknowledged what many market participants had been saying for some time: maintaining prices far above market reality is no longer sustainable. Reducing the number of sightholders while lowering official price lists appears to be an attempt to reset the company’s business model ahead of a potential change in ownership.
Source: Bloomberg
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