【Beijing, Chi】World’s Largest Diamond Giant Announces Another Price Cut

Compared to the continuously rising price of gold, the “eternal value” of diamonds seems to be losing its luster.
The world’s largest diamond producer, De Beers, recently announced a price reduction for diamonds. Since peaking in 2022, the diamond industry has been facing one of its most severe and prolonged crises in modern history, influenced by cooling luxury consumption in major consumer countries and the increasing popularity of lab-grown diamonds.
At the first regular diamond auction of the year, which began recently, De Beers significantly lowered the prices of rough diamonds over 0.75 carats. The specific extent of this price adjustment is not yet known.
Informed sources stated that De Beers adopted a consolidated pricing and invoicing policy for this auction—no longer pricing each box of diamonds individually but issuing a total price invoice for combined lots, making it difficult to calculate the exact price cut. Industry insiders estimate the discount range to be between 10% and 15%.
This price reduction by De Beers stems from falling prices due to declining global diamond demand. The RapNet Diamond Price Index (RAPI) shows that in 2025, the RAPI for diamonds over 3 carats fell slightly by 0.4%. Smaller, everyday consumer-grade diamonds like 0.3–0.5 carats saw significant price drops, impacted by lab-grown diamonds and weak demand. In 2025, the price of 0.5-carat diamonds fell by over 20% for the year.
Against the backdrop of declining demand, De Beers has already conducted multiple rounds of price adjustments previously.
De Beers played the “price cut card” at its first rough diamond sight in January 2024, reducing prices for various types of rough diamonds. Among them, rough diamonds over 2 carats saw price cuts exceeding 15%; those between 0.75 and 2 carats saw average reductions of 10%–15%; and those below 0.75 carats were cut by 5%–10%. The comprehensive reduction was approximately 10%. In December 2024, De Beers again cut diamond prices across the board by over 10%.
Industry analysts point out that as a leading upstream company, De Beers’ price cuts aim to boost sales performance on one hand and provide greater profit margins for midstream processors on the other, in an effort to stimulate market demand.
However, De Beers’ situation has not improved significantly after the price cuts. The company’s rough diamond production in the first three months of 2024 fell by 23% year-on-year. Simultaneously, De Beers also lowered its full-year 2024 production guidance from the original 29–32 million carats to 26–29 million carats.

Official information shows that De Beers was founded in London in 1888, and its advertising slogan “A Diamond is Forever” has had a widespread impact. Diamonds quickly became the preferred choice for engagement rings and maintained high premiums for decades.
As the world’s largest diamond production and sales company, De Beers once accounted for 90% of the world’s diamond supply market and still controls 60% of the world’s rough diamond trade.
De Beers holds significant sway in the rough diamond market. The company holds 10 diamond auctions annually, and participating “sightholders” can usually only passively accept the prices and quantities offered.
However, in the current tense market environment, many diamond dealers are no longer willing to pay the prices set by De Beers.
It is worth noting that in recent years, the diamond industry, one of the symbols of global luxury, has been wavering. End demand remains persistently weak. In 2025, US polished diamond imports fell by 48% year-on-year, market consumer confidence is insufficient, and high gold prices are driving consumers toward gold jewelry, further pressuring diamond demand.
De Beers has accumulated over $2 billion in inventory, and since 2025, the sales rate at its diamond auctions has also been declining.
Amid these combined factors, De Beers is being planned for divestment by its parent company.
In May 2024, Anglo American, the British mining company to which De Beers belongs, announced that it would demerge or divest its diamond division, De Beers.
In 2025, news emerged that the company’s plan to sell its 85% stake in De Beers had attracted interest from some buyers, and a deal was expected to be completed.
De Beers CEO Al Cook recently confirmed that Botswana, Angola, and Namibia have expressed interest in acquiring stakes in De Beers.
It is reported that Anglo American values De Beers at $7.6 billion, but analysts’ estimates for this transaction vary widely, from just over $600 million to $4 billion.

Recently, multiple cases of plummeting回收 prices for small-carat diamond rings have sparked widespread online discussion, completely shattering the marketing myth of “A Diamond is Forever.”
A woman from Anhui who spent 18,000 yuan on a diamond ring 10 years ago now finds its回收 price is only 180 yuan; a consumer in Xichang, Sichuan, who bought a wedding ring for 14,000 yuan received less than 200 yuan upon回收, an extreme depreciation of 99%. Although such extreme cases do not fully account for the separate value of the 18K gold setting, they still直观 reflect the保值困境 of consumer-grade diamonds.

The疲软 diamond market contrasts sharply with the持续攀升 gold price.
Ten years ago, in January 2016, the price of Laofengxiang gold was about 290 yuan per gram, while on January 24, 2026, it had reached 1,551 yuan per gram, an increase of over 400%.

Lab-grown diamonds, with their increasingly lower prices, are also severely squeezing the生存空间 of natural diamonds. In 2025, lab-grown diamonds accounted for over 40% of sales in the global diamond jewelry market, an increase of more than 8 times compared to 2019.
Meanwhile, in recent years, the retail price of lab-grown diamonds has fallen by over 50% from its peak. Today, the price of a 1-carat lab-grown diamond has dropped from 8,000 yuan to 3,500 yuan, less than one-tenth the price of a natural diamond of equivalent quality.
Currently, China’s synthetic diamond industry规模 leads the world, with increasingly丰富 downstream products. The “2024 China Jewelry Industry Development Report” mentions that, according to incomplete statistics, China’s lab-grown diamond production in 2024 was about 22 million carats, a year-on-year increase of 144.44%, accounting for 63% of global total production.
Media reports indicate that at a store specializing in selling lab-grown diamonds in Nanyang, Henan, consumers咨询 and选购络绎不绝, primarily年轻人. The store负责人 stated that年轻人 account for about 70%, and sales in 2025 doubled year-on-year.

Compared to the continuously rising price of gold, the “eternal value” of diamonds seems to be losing its luster. As African producing countries may take stakes in De Beers, a restructuring of the industry value chain could become a turning point, but short-term阵痛 remains难以避免.