DiamondBuzz
China Reignites Diamond Demand, Boosting Indian Traders and Prices
After a two-year hiatus, Chinese buyers return to purchasing Indian-cut diamonds, sparking optimism for Surat’s diamond industry and boosting rough diamond prices.
After nearly two years of inactivity, China has resumed purchasing diamonds cut and polished in India, rekindling hope for Indian diamond traders and positively influencing rough diamond prices. This resurgence in demand, marked by Chinese buyers replenishing stocks at the Hong Kong International Jewellery Show (March 4-8), is expected to rejuvenate diamond production in Surat, India’s diamond cutting and polishing hub, and provide a much-needed boost to the country’s diamond exports.
China, which had primarily focused on buying gold during the past two years, is India’s second-largest diamond export market after the United States. This renewed interest is particularly significant for Surat, where diamond production had stagnated without Chinese orders. India currently handles the cutting and polishing of nine out of ten diamonds sold worldwide.
The mood at the recent Hong Kong Jewellery Show was notably more optimistic than the last event in September, with Chinese buyers showing more interest after a period of reduced spending on diamonds, driven by the belief that gold holds more value. Despite this cautious optimism, diamond exports to Hong Kong, the primary route for Indian exports to China, have dropped significantly—down 28% in FY24 and a further 60% through February of this fiscal year.
With Chinese demand starting to pick up, rough diamond prices have surged by 3-4%. “While we remain cautiously optimistic, we are unsure how long this recovery will last,” said Kirit Bhansali, chairman of the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council. “The market dynamics are shifting, and we are adjusting our expectations accordingly.”
Although the Hong Kong show showed signs of recovery compared to the September 2024 event, industry leaders acknowledge that the diamond market has recalibrated. Turnovers for jewellery companies are now about 30% to 40% lower than previous years, suggesting that stakeholders must adapt their strategies to the new normal.
DiamondBuzz
De Beers Group Sets Out Portfolio and Organisational Actions to Support Long-Term Value Creation
Company outlines strategic cost optimisation, portfolio streamlining and operational changes to strengthen resilience while positioning for long-term growth in the natural diamond industry.
De Beers Group is advancing delivery of its business streamlining by setting out a number of planned portfolio and organisational changes to ensure an efficient cost base that strengthens resilience in the near-term while enhancing future competitiveness and retaining optionality as industry conditions improve.
Since 2024, De Beers has been streamlining its business in line with its Origins strategy to reduce costs, divest non-core assets and prioritise investment in activities that create the most value. Significant progress has been made, with more than $100 million of annual overhead costs removed from the business, the sale or closure of a number of non-core assets and significant capital and cost reconfigurations to asset expansion projects.
Simultaneously, De Beers has reinvested in natural diamond category marketing to support the industry’s efforts to grow natural diamond demand, launching new large-scale campaigns and collaborating with key stakeholders across the value chain to foster industry-wide investment. Global consumer demand for natural diamond jewellery returned to growth in 2025, while natural diamond sales increased across US independent jewellers in 2025 and into Q1 2026, led by higher value diamonds and those promoted by De Beers’ Desert Diamonds marketing campaign.
On the supply side, global rough diamond production is now decreasing, with several producers closing mines during 2026. Whilst the increasing rarity of diamonds and the emerging signs of improvement in consumer demand are likely to support longer-term value creation, rough diamond trading conditions are expected to remain challenging in the near-term due to cyclical and industry-specific factors.
Consistent with recent actions to improve business resilience, De Beers intends to pause production at the Venetia mine in South Africa for two years to reduce costs while also rephasing capital expenditure on its underground project. This will involve critical infrastructure investment to enhance the capacity and efficiency of the mine, with the intention to support future production growth as business and industry conditions improve.
De Beers is engaging with stakeholders in accordance with relevant requirements and the company’s values as it moves through this process, and will both support impacted employees and continue to invest in its community and Social and Labour Plan commitments.
This proposed action at Venetia Mine follows the decision earlier this year to pause the Tuzo Phase 3 expansion project at the Gahcho Kué Mine in Canada.
In parallel, De Beers plans to reconfigure its global operating model to refocus and prioritise resources on the core operational businesses and reduce its central corporate cost base.
Al Cook, CEO of De Beers Group, said:

“In line with our commitment to focus and streamline our business, we are making a number of changes to De Beers to ensure greater business resilience in the near-term, while supporting long-term value creation. We recognise the protracted challenging conditions as the diamond industry evolves, though we are encouraged by signs of consumer demand growth in the US and beyond, particularly in higher quality diamonds.
Global rough diamond supply is falling, bringing more support to the market. The changes we are making to our business are focused on underpinning our efficiency now and into the future, favourably positioning De Beers in its leadership role.”
De Beers Group will maintain current production levels through its other operations, and previous production guidance remains unchanged.
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