REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
- Russia diamond giant Alrosa is halting sales in a bid to boost diamond prices, according to Bloomberg.
- The company will temporarily pause sales of rough diamonds until November.
- Diamond prices have struggled over the past year amid growing demand for lab-grown stones.
Alrosa, one of the largest diamond mining firms in Russia, has decided to halt its sales of diamonds for two months in a desperate bid to stop prices from plunging.
The mining giant will pause sales of rough diamonds until November, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing a company memo sent out to customers. That comes amid a freefall in diamond prices, which has only accelerated over the past few weeks.
"We expect that this will have a stabilizing effect, helping to balance the market, and will strengthen the stability of the supply chain," Alrosa said in the memo.
Meanwhile, De Beers — the South African diamond miner that's a close rival to Alrosa — is continuing its sales but offering customers the ability to reject diamonds they have already agreed to buy, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The company has already allowed customers to defer purchases for certain diamonds through the rest of the year, sources added.
Diamond prices have struggled over the past year, in part due to higher demand for lab-grown diamonds as well as demands from India's diamond association for miners to pull back on their supply of the precious stone. The organization influences a large portion of the diamond market, as it cuts, polishes, or trades around 90% of all diamonds in the world.
Those catalysts have already caused some diamond dealers to take a big hit. De Beers slashed prices of its diamonds in a certain category by more than 40%, Bloomberg previously reported, from around $1,400 a carat last summer to $850 a carat in July.
Even then, some diamonds sold directly between traders and manufacturers are being priced at a 10% discount to diamonds currently offered by De Beers and Alrosa, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg, which could mean that the miners will face even more pressure to cut prices.
Russian diamonds are also facing a potential ban from the G7 nations, which could impact the price of diamonds of Russian origin. A G7 diamond ban could be finalized over the next few weeks, one Belgian official suggested last Friday.