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Article: CARTEL CRACKS, BUT WILL PRICES?(prices for diamonds may fall in coming years as De Beers market share falls)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine
- Article date:
- October 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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GEMS | DIAMOND MARKUPS remain extreme, but new competition for market leader De Beers may burst the bauble bubble--eventually.
FOR DECADES, the South African mining and marketing giant De Beers has kept a tight ring around uncut-diamond sales by hoarding surpluses, buying excess stones from rivals, using mercenaries to choke off smuggling, and dictating prices by bankrolling the major diamond dealers. But De Beers's grip on market share has slipped from 80% in the early 1980s to about 65% today because of breakaway mines in Australia and Russia that now produce more than De Beers can buy up without hurting profits.
Recently, De Beers began unloading a ...