The Diamond Pulse - March 2025

THE MONTHLY 'RAP': Signs of Recovery Amid Industry Turmoil

Although the diamond and jewelry industry is still facing challenges, February showed us the first green sprouts of market improvement. Lucara announced that it had sold two massive diamonds for $54 million, while Kering’s jewelry sales shined despite a difficult year for other divisions in the company. Both Pandora and Indian jeweler Titan Company also saw increased demand. Meanwhile, legal disputes once again ruled the month’s news. Brinks’s US unit was ordered to pay $42 million in money-laundering settlements, while a Qatari sheikh lost his legal battle over the right to a 70-carat blue diamond. Namdia Desert Diamonds suspended its CEO and other top executives following the armed heist that saw nearly $20 million in diamonds stolen, and Lucapa Diamond Corp. dealt with a blockade by local Angolan community leaders that blocked entry to its Lulo mine and disrupted production.

De Beers made big news during the month, first for finally signing a deal with the Botswana government that was about five years in the making, after prolonged negotiations. The company also posted a net loss for 2024 of $288 million and revealed that revenue for the full year fell 23% to $3.29 billion. Meanwhile, parent company Anglo American wrote down the miner’s book value by $2.88 billion, the second impairment in two years, leaving its carrying value at just $4.1 billion.

Here's your diamond market analysis from RapNet for February 2025

In February, diamond delivered mixed results, with the 1ct RAPI increasing 0.2%. While higher-quality diamonds generally performed better than lower-quality round 1-carat diamonds. The top performing category was D-F, IF-VVS, which increased in price 1% over the month while the percentage of buyer searches increased from 12.9% in January to 15.8% in February, showing an increase in demand for this category. At the end of February, nearly a quarter of round 1-carat diamond inventory on RapNet was for G-J, VSs, while around 20% of the searches on RapNet throughout February were for G-J SIs.

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