India’s diamond cutting and polishing industry will defer purchases of about $2 billion as it is currently sitting on roughly $10 billion worth of rough stocks. The purchase of rough stones by diamantaires of Surat and Mumbai between January and July this year has fallen to the lowest in the past ten years.
Alrosa and De Beers saw sales drop about $2.5 billion in the first half of 2019. De Beers has already that it will allow its sight holders additional flexibility in deferring rough purchases – or the deferral of at least part of the parcels offered for sale.
The $10 billion rough inventory in India was the highest since the economic crisis of a decade ago. President of Surat Diamond Association (SDA), Babu Gujarati said: “ Many diamond manufacturers in Surat are sitting on their stocks for the last five months. They are certainly not going to procure new stocks of rough.”
