THE Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) says its prospects for 2024 have been bolstered by recent price recoveries, which have given impetus to its growth ambitions.
This comes after the diamond miner reached an agreement with Taurum, a United Arab Emirates company.
Under the agreement, Taurum will act as a technical, sales and marketing partner for ZCDC.
Sugar Chagonda, head of corporate affairs at the state-run ZCDC, told the Zimbabwe Independent that prices had surged by 15% since last year after a post pandemic slump.
He said ZCDC was well placed to benefit from the uplift in prices.
“Generally, diamond prices were affected by suppressed demand in key markets owing to supply and demand imbalances,” Chagonda told the Independent.
He said the post pandemic era had generally been characterised by high inventories which were underpinning prices recovery.
“Post Covid-19 inventories accumulated in the midstream coupled with slower recovery in China and depressed demand in the USA led to surplus supply which resulted in a decline in prices. In November 2023, manufacturers suspended diamond sales to correct these demand and supply imbalances,” he said.
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“This strategy has seen global prices posting mild recovery of around 15% in the January-February sales period. We are optimistic that we will also benefit from this market upside. The company has positioned itself to grow its market share across the diamond value chain.”
International diamonds markets had a far from glamorous 2023 as prices fell by 20%.
“The big names in diamonds are reflecting the dimming of diamonds’ lustre, with Russian diamond miner Alrosa cancelling its rough diamond sales for two months in a row — September and October 2023 — in an attempt to drive prices up by limiting supply in the wake of weak demand,” according to a report by the resources website Invezz, which tracks mineral prices.
“South African diamond titan De Beers similarly said in November 2023 that it was going to stockpile its unsold stones in response to weak prices. Additionally, uncertainty plagued the diamond market in 2023, when several countries considered imposing sanctions on Russia — the world’s biggest diamond producer — in light of its Ukraine invasion,” Invezz added.
“But despite all this, there is some hope that diamond prices may be due for a rebound. This is according to Rapaport, who said … they had recently seen rises in prices across several categories.”
