Rio Tinto sees Diamond logjam to ease by middle of next year

Rio Tinto’s diamond unit managing director Jean-Marc Lieberherr feels that the logjam and the hardships faced by the industry are likely to end by the next year. “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. 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. The last 12 to 18 months have been tough for the industry,” Lieberherr said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in London. 

It may be recalled that rough-diamond prices have fallen about 18 per cent this year and are heading for a sixth straight quarterly decline, as per data from U.K.-based WWW International Diamond Consultant.