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Diamond sales dip at DeBeers

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patgarrett666	Diamond sales dip at DeBeers	Lead	[-]
Member Posts: 11024 (02/11/08 11:29:03) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Diamond sales dip at DeBeers Snippet LONDON De Beers, the world's top diamond producer, posted a dip in 2007 diamond sales on Friday, but forecast a rebound this year amid a tight market that was expected to keep prices buoyant. We are in an environment where the rough diamond market is strong, Managing Director Gareth Penny told a conference call. With anticipated rises in rough diamond prices we would expect overall (200 sales to be higher. He cautioned, however, that a rebound in the group's natural rough diamond sales which fell 3.7 per cent to $5.9-billion (U.S.) in 2007 could hinge on the U.S. economy and a power crisis in South Africa. A steep downturn in the United States, the world's biggest diamond jewellery market, could dampen sales there for cheaper products, but healthy demand was set to continue in China, India and the Middle East. We put up prices several times through the back end of last year and again earlier this year. This has largely been driven by supply/demand there is just a shortage of rough in the market, Mr. Penny said. De Beers 2007 diamond production was flat at 51 million carats and a steady result was also seen this year, he added. www.theglobeandmail.com/s...nergy/home
patgarrett666	Re: Diamond sales dip at DeBeers	#1	[-]
Member Posts: 11024 (02/13/08 09:39:30) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Canadian diamonds, back in the rough ANDY HOFFMAN Globe and Mail Update February 12, 2008 at 10:17 PM EST As far as Don Lindsay is concerned, Canadian diamonds look anything but friendly right now. The country's gem miners are being ravaged by a soaring dollar and the head of Teck Cominco Ltd. said Tuesday that his company is no longer interested in investing in the diamond sector. At the moment, that move in the Canadian dollar has really hurt the industry, so I doubt that we'd be making any moves there, Mr. Lindsay said on a conference call to discuss Teck's fourth-quarter financial results. Mr. Lindsay has said for years he was attracted to the diamond industry, but his about-face follows a series of serious financial setbacks for the few companies mining precious stones in the north. Industry giant De Beers was forced last week to write down the value of its Canadian assets, including its Snap Lake mine in the Northwest Territories, by nearly $1-billion (U.S.). The South African diamond giant attributed the $965-million impairment charge to the stunning gains the Canadian currency has made against the U.S. dollar as well as rising costs and construction challenges at Snap Lake and its Victor mine in Northern Ontario. Snap Lake started production late last year, while Victor is expected to reach commercial production some time this summer. De Beers Canada Inc. spokesman Derek Teevan said Canadian producers are being squeezed because costs are incurred in Canadian dollars while diamonds are priced in U.S. dollars. It's having downward pressure in terms of profitability, he said. In December, Toronto's Harry Winston Diamond Corp., which owns 40 per cent of the Diavik Mine in the NWT, said a 13-per-cent rise in the dollar prompted a $40-million foreign exchange loss in its third quarter related to the revaluation of future income taxes. For some diamond miners, the rising dollar, which hit a record $1.10 (U.S.) in November, has had a much more devastating impact. Last month, independent producer Tahera Diamond Corp. was forced to seek protection from creditors as mining problems combined with the strong dollar pushed the operator of the Jericho mine into insolvency. The Jericho mine has since been shut down as Tahera tries to reorganize and deal with creditors. Teck invested $30-million (Canadian) in Tahera last year and is the company's largest shareholder, with a 16-per-cent stake. Teck paid $1 each for its Tahera shares, which closed Tuesday at 9.5 cents, and the company recorded a fourth-quarter impairment charge of $26-million related to the Tahera investment. While all Canadian mining operations have been hurt by the rising loonie, Mr. Lindsay said diamonds are particularly vulnerable because rough diamond prices haven't appreciated nearly as dramatically as those for copper, zinc and coal. We think the diamond industry in Canada will suffer from that for a few years until pricing can sort of catch up on 4-per-cent to 5-per-cent increases year after year. It will take five years to catch up. That has a big impact on the diamond business, he said. Further clouding the outlook for diamonds is the possibility of a recession in the United States, which accounts for roughly 45 per cent of diamond demand. Vancouver-based Teck had been seen by some as a potential buyer of Canada's largest diamond operations, BHP Billiton Ltd.'s Ekati Mine in the NWT and the Diavik Mine controlled by Rio Tinto PLC. BHP's $147-billion (U.S.) hostile bid for Rio Tinto has led to speculation that a successful combination could see the Canadian mines sold. www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080212.wrteck0212/BNStory/Business/home
patgarrett666	Re: Diamond sales dip at DeBeers	#2	[-]
Member Posts: 11024 (02/20/08 09:57:40) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Record diamond to go under hammer LONDON (AFP) - The biggest colourless diamond to appear at auction for 20 years will go under the hammer later this year, officials said as it was unveiled in London Tuesday. The 101.27-carat stone, which will be sold at the Hong Kong branch of Christie's auction house on May 28, is expected to fetch in excess of six million dollars (three million pounds, four million euros). "Only three colourless diamonds of over 100 carats have ever appeared at auction, all sold in Geneva," said Francois Curiel, chairman of jewellery at Christie's. "With Asia becoming such a vibrant market, it is fitting that this rarest gem should be offered ... to the growing number of collectors in this region," he added. The diamond was found at the Premier diamond mine in South Africa, and is being sold by a Europe-based diamond trading company. In 1990 the Mouawad Splendor, a 101.84-carat pear-shaped diamond, sold for 12.7 million dollars. The diamond unveiled Tuesday will be on view to the public in London from Saturday until February 27. news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080219/wl_uk_afp/britainhongkongdiamondauction;_ylt=AtbZaG_OzhCQiwxDU.H3PYMUewgF
MickyScars	De Beers Diamond Production Plunges 91%, Anglo Says	#3	[-]
Member Posts: 10597 (05/01/09 03:14:45) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	De Beers Diamond Production Plunges 91%, Anglo Says By Carli Lourens http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en&sid=alu.7QTpUbAI April 30 (Bloomberg) -- De Beers, the world's largest diamond producer, reduced first-quarter output by 91 percent, according to Anglo American Plc, as the world economic slump cut demand for luxury goods. Production slid to 1.08 million carats from 11.8 million carats a year earlier, London-based Anglo, which owns 45 percent of De Beers, said in a statement today. Anglo also said platinum output fell 5.8 percent to 404,000 ounces and manganese ore dropped 56 percent to 293,000 metric tons. About half of the world's diamonds are retailed in the U.S., where recession has crimped spending. Diamond prices fell about 16 percent in the past six months, according to an index published by researcher Polished Prices. Bulgari SpA, the maker of Allegra jewelry, probably will post a first-quarter loss, Chief Executive Officer Francesco Trapani said on April 16. "For the rest of the year, De Beers's production should be considerably higher," said Johann Pretorius, an analyst at Nedcor Securities in Johannesburg who advises buying Anglo shares. De Beers's Debswana venture, which accounts for about 65 percent of group output, this month restarted operations in Botswana, where it suspended mines in February. Lower Inventories While diamond prices remain 30 percent to 40 percent lower than a year ago, De Beers's production cut would have reduced stocks, "which will be good for the industry," Pretorius said. Anglo gained 42 pence, or 2.9 percent, to close at 1,484 pence in London trading, extending yesterday's 7.5 percent climb. The stock has slid 55 percent in the past year, more than double the 21 percent drop by BHP Billiton Ltd., the world's biggest mining company. Anglo is also idling platinum operations and reduced coal output in response to lower anticipated demand. First-quarter coking-coal output fell 31 percent from the prior three months, and steam-coal output dropped 9.6 percent. Production is "down largely across the board" at Anglo, Liberum Capital said in a note today, calling the drop "largely in line with expectations." Prices of minerals and metals from nickel to copper have fallen in the past year as recessions in the U.S., Europe and Japan crimped consumer spending on goods from cars to jewelry. The LMEX Index of six industrial metals declined about 52 percent in the past year. Anglo suspended dividends this year for the first time since the outbreak of World War II and halted share buybacks to conserve cash as metal and mineral prices fell. It joined larger rivals BHP and Rio Tinto Plc in curbing expansion plans and firing workers. Anglo also said today it secured $4.7 billion of financing and now has more than $9 billion in cash and bank facilities.
patgarrett666	Diamond industry wary of rough stone price bubble	#4	[-]
Member Posts: 11024 (11/17/09 09:45:29) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Diamond industry wary of rough stone price bubble Arko Datta/REUTERS Modest market pick-up seen in 2010 Philip Blenkinsop Antwerp, Belgium - Reuters Published on Monday, Nov. 16, 2009 1:15PM EST Last updated on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009 8:38AM EST A speculative bubble in rough diamond prices is likely to pop by mid-2010 and threaten a rerun of last year's industry crisis, according to an executive of the world's second-largest producer, Russia's Alrosa. Prices for rough or uncut diamonds roughly halved from August, 2008, peaks to March but have since pulled back about 50 per cent, without an appreciable pick-up in polished prices or consumer demand for diamond jewellery. Speakers at a diamond conference in trading capital Antwerp on Monday talked of a possible speculative bubble. "It is very likely that it will explode in late spring or summer," Sergey Oulin, a vice-president of state-owned Alrosa, said during a break in the event. "We will have difficult times, maybe more than in September/October 2008." That crash, prompted by the global financial crisis, led to job losses for almost half a million of some 800,000 workers in India, the centre of diamond cutting and polishing. Some industry insiders have speculated the industry will emerge from the crisis 30 to 40 per cent slimmer. However, wide-scale bankruptcies have been averted, partly because producers slashed output and banks did not abruptly pull credit in an industry with debt last year of up to $15-billion. "If the stakeholders had not acted in a co-ordinated fashion we would have had a massacre in terms of liquidity," said Victor van der Kwast, international diamond and jewellery group head at ABN AMRO, one of the main names in the business. He said the recovery was fragile and warned market players not to "jump too fast". Global retail demand for diamond jewellery will decline by almost 10 per cent this year after falling 9 per cent in 2008, with a pick-up of only 0.4 per cent seen in 2010, an industry report says. The United States, whose consumers buy over 40 per cent of the world's diamonds, emerged from technical recession in the third quarter but the run-in to Christmas, normally accounting for 40 per cent of annual sales, is expected to be little better than a year ago. Diamonds are displayed in a polishing diamond workshop in Antwerp February 5, 2009. U.S. imports of polished diamonds dropped 43.5 per cent in the first nine months and by 23.4 per cent in September. U.S. consumer sentiment fell to its weakest level in three months, according to November data released last week. The diamond industry has great hopes for growth in emerging markets, notably China and India, but neither will make up for shortfalls in the developed world for now. "If the U.S. falls 10 per cent, China has got to double to make up," RBC Dominion Securities analyst Des Kilalea said, adding diamond sales normally picked up late in a recovery with consumers more interested for example in first paying off debt. One challenge facing the industry is to ensure that consumers are willing to buy gems in the future, stemming decreased interest from a younger generation more focused on iPods and addressing a rise in ethical consumerism. Top diamond producer De Beers, 45 per cent owned by Anglo American, used to foot the bill for generic advertising, but the big players plan to share the marketing burden from next year with the newly formed International Diamond Board. It will seek to promote buying diamonds and also counter "shocks" or negative publicity such as from the 2006 Hollywood movie "Blood Diamond" about conflict stones. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/diamond-industry-wary-of-rough-stone-price-bubble/article1365081/

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