Ker-ching. Bling is back. Just ask the Chinese tourists who splashed out on diamonds and luxury goods in Hong Kong over the Lunar New Year holidays. Buyers in China, Hong Kong and India last year accounted for about a fifth of world diamond demand, half that of their US counterparts. Asian markets, together with the Gulf region, will overtake the US by 2015, De Beers data show. That will be music to the ears of rough-diamond producers, as the industry emerges from its financial crisis funk.
Two years ago, the diamond trade was crippled by collapsing sales and heavy debt. Now, global recovery has propelled De Beers’ underlying earnings for 2010 to about $600m from a $220m loss the year before; sales rose by more than a half. Production and sales are not back at pre-crisis levels yet. However, De Beers pulled the other levers at its disposal – supply and price – selling more carats at prices on average
27 per cent higher than in 2009.