Diamond producers are adapting to lower rough demand in the long term as the industry’s approach to inventory has changed, consultant Eyal Axelrod said on a special video episode of the Rapaport Diamond Podcast.
Neither midstream players nor retailers want to hold stocks as they did in the past, putting pressure on mining companies, as they can no longer sell the quantities they are used to selling, he explained in conversation with Rapaport’s Joshua Freedman.
“There is demand [for rough], but how big of a demand?” said Axelrod, who founded diamond consultancy firm Lexa International in 2023. “If in the past, De Beers…and Alrosa would not sell for six months, it would dry the market, and you would see a big hunger for diamonds, and it [would] start the cycle of going up. But that’s not happening.”
Miners have already announced production cuts in response to this reality, he noted on the podcast, which the pair recorded in late December. Still, “in the current pricing, and in the pricing that I [foresee in the future], I think there will be some mines struggling to sustain themselves.”
Axelrod explained parallels between the diamond industry and the movie sector, where he worked as a creative executive earlier in his career. He reflected on his more than 18 years at De Beers broker I Hennig & Co., including as head of its Israel office.
He also addressed the complexity of the synthetics industry, which he experienced as vice president of sales and marketing at lab-grown producer Lusix.
Watch the full video podcast on YouTube or the audio version here: