THE SITUATION OF THE DIAMOND SECTOR | EN

AN ASSET FOR INVESTMENT
The diamond investment market is still attractive. The investors are still looking for the best way to capitalise on the increase of the diamond prices, expecting diamonds, just like gold and platinum, to become the next big alternative investment In spite of the persistent difficulties in assessing and the absence of an official market, as is the case for gold, new funds are emerging, always offering new ways to invest in diamonds in order to get the strong returns expected in the diamond market A few new funds: Pink Iguana (to invest in diamonds, with a contribution starting at Pounds 10,000 up to one million) and a diamond fund for Swiss Asset Advisor (which has recently announced it will offer the flexibility to have investments and incomes at any and all time). They join existing funds such as Singapore Diamond Exchange (a private diamond exchange market which is offering middle- and long-term investment opportunities) and Diamond Asset Advisor (which used to partner harry Winston, it remains to be seen if this partnership is going to be transferred to the Swatch group, which has bought up Harry Winston Diamond's retail market). The diamond industry is expected to deal with transparency of pricing and establish - an independent source of the price of diamonds in order to support a diamond market which is a potential investment As for the future, the demand for rough diamonds is expected to grow at an composed annual rate of 5.1% at almost dollars 26 billion (2012 prices) by 2023 Although India and china are still increasing their diamond consumptions, the projection of the 2013 demand has been reviewed down from the 2012 projection. This down review has been caused by a lower growth of the Gross Domestic Product in both markets, leading to down estimates of the expansion of the middle class as well as lower actual cut diamond global sales. The global rough diamond offer is expected to grow at a composed annual rate of 4.8% between 2012 and 2018, to then go down to a composed rate of 19% per year as from 2019 till 2023, stabilising at 153 million carats in 2023 (the main causes for the decreased long-term offer are the drying out of the existing mines and the absence of significant new discoveries. New projects that are coming in line are not significant enough to generate an important growth over the period of estimation.)
 
FACTORS THREATENING THE BALANCE
Bain & Company's supply estimations for 2013 have been revised down from 2012 because of changes in the plans of the companies and financial and operational difficulties met by the new projects. Although the market is balanced from 2013 onwards till 2017, the demand, from 2018 to 2023, may exceed the offer, supporting a positive long-term vision for the diamond industry. Nevertheless, several factors are still threatening and disturbing the demand-offer balance. A serious crisis of the debt in Europe, which has increased the political instability in the Asian countries or also the slowing down of the economic growth in China and in India are the most probable developments which might have a negative impact on demand for diamonds.