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RAPAPORT... Rio Tinto expects rough diamond prices to decline by the
middle of next year, Jean-Marc Lieberherr, managing director of the company’s
diamond unit told Bloomberg Television.
“There is a need for the rough prices to adjust to the
economic value of the polished price and that trend is in motion at the
moment,” Lieberherr said in an interview broadcast Wednesday. There’s a disconnect between
prices for rough diamonds and polished ones, he said.
The executive said a “logjam” of diamonds held by the
industry’s midstream -- traders, cutters and polishers -- will clear by the
middle of next year as rough prices decline.
“The polished
pipeline is a little bit overloaded and it will probably take until about the
middle of next year to come back to normal levels,” Lieberherr said. “The last
12 to 18 months have been tough for the industry.”
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