Alrosa hasn’t seen a reason for a price correction yet, he said.
“The issue is not in prices,” Agureev said. “It’s about a demand volume which suffered a lot since people were sitting at home.”
Still, Alrosa remains in constant contact with its customers, including seeking feedback on market conditions, demand and price expectations, a spokeswoman said. These discussions are used to make decisions about future trading sessions, she said.
A De Beers spokesman declined to comment.
De Beers’s customers have largely welcomed its actions, especially in allowing them to defer purchases without any punitive repercussions. Traditionally, refusing to buy your allocated diamonds meant being offered fewer stones in the future or even losing access altogether.
However, the company is struggling to convince any of them to buy. It’s offered to show diamonds to customers in trading hubs including Antwerp this week — instead of insisting they travel to Botswana as usual — and told its buyers that the sale could be extended to as long as three weeks, according to people familiar with the situation.
Yet only a few of its 80-odd customers actually turned up to look at them, said the people.
While the big producers may face pressure to lower prices, it’s a complicated decision.
“If they cut prices at this point it sets off a chain reaction,” said Ben Davis, an analyst at Liberum. “Not just for the miners, but for the whole industry, including the midstream.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.