Comments on the DTC / Rio Tinto sight sale

"The total value of the latest sight from De Beers Group's Diamond Trading Co. (DTC), which is taking place from October 25-29, is estimated at around $450 million, down from $650 million at the last sight, sightholders said. No price increases were reported."

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What a surprise (sarcasm). The DTC has decided to hold back the release of rough just in time for the holidays...  What does this mean for you the consumer?  That there is $200 million less for us to all play with so it may be more difficult for you to find exactly what you are looking for.  If you run across the "diamond of your dreams" we suggest that you buy it sooner rather than later because if you spend too much time staring at it the diamond might vanish right in front of your eyes and there is no guarantee that you'll find another one like it before the first of the New Year.  We're not trying to scare anybody into buying now, but we do want people to have a realistic understanding of why there "might be" a shortage of goods when they happen to be searching for a stone...  All of the reputable dealers here on PS offer a reasonable inspection period with excellent return policies, it would be better to buy the diamond that you are interested in rather than losing it while you think about it...  We do the same with parcels when buying them, we capture the goods we think we might be interested in to bring them in for physical evaluation and then return what we don't want and this prevents the goods from selling overnight while we're thinking about them...  Understand that we're not saying "hurry up and buy" or "hurry up and buy from us" (or them) we're simply pointing out the reality of the situation so that you won't be surprised when a dealer tells you "the market is really tight right now" and might not be able to find exactly the diamond you are hoping to have for a Winter Engagement.  The market is tight, it has been tight and will continue to be tight as long as the DTC and other distributors continue to hold back diamond rough in an attempt to control pricing.  This has been "the game" forever and we expect it to continue, but maybe this will serve as a working example of why the market is tight so that dealers like ourselves aren't taking the brunt of the blame from the perspective of the public because we're not the cause, we're just the end point in terms of distribution and we feel the frustration of the situation right along with you
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"The total value of last week's Rio Tinto sight was estimated at $60 million, which was up from last month sightholders told Rapaport News Thursday."

"They added that prices rose 3%-4%, with goods appearing to be expensive across the board. However, one client said the quantities offered were substantially better than at the last sight."

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Rio Tinto is one of the mining companies which sources diamonds from the Diavik Mine in the Northwest Territory of Canada.  With the understanding that their most recent sight sale was a little less than 10% of DeBeers' last sight sale it might be easier for people to understand why Canadian sourced diamonds are in such short supply in comparison to diamonds sourced through the DTC distribution pipeline...

Here's hoping that we all get what we're looking for this holiday season and that the current price structure holds without further increases for the year so that we can all have a wonderful and productive holiday season despite the control issues which we all face at the hands of the powers that be at the top of the distribution chain...

Ana "The greatest experts are only as good as the sum total of what they have seen." [Souren Melikian]

I personally don’t see much price movement, The rough market is still pretty soft, with a large cutting overcapacity, the Indian sight holders have been resisting the increases.

Dealer to dealer premiums on rough are lower than usual.

We notice there is still a lot of rough in the market from the last two sights.

What is interesting is this sight has substantially better quality material.

Johan

Diamond Exchange Ltd. (Australia)

Date: 10/29/2004 7:449 PM
Author: mdx
 

Dealer to dealer premiums on rough are lower than usual.

We notice there is still a lot of rough in the market from the last two sights.

What is interesting is this sight has substantially better quality material.

Johan

Ana "The greatest experts are only as good as the sum total of what they have seen." [Souren Melikian]

........... Karl has joined the diamond trade and is now posting as Karl_K

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>Y<

Yoram F.

Antique Diamond Gem
http://www.diagem.net/

"When it doesn't exist, design it..." Sir Henry Royce