De Beers sees slowdown in Indian diamond market

The Diamond Trading Co, the marketing arm of De Beers, the world's largest miner and supplier of diamonds, is expecting a slowdown in diamond market this year. In India - the world's largest exporter of ''the girl's best friend'' – growth would slip to 20 per cent in 2011 as against 31 per cent in 2010, DTC chief executive officer chief executive Varda Shine said in Surat on Tuesday.

''We expect a slight slowdown in the current second quarter ... we hope the industry in India will grow by 20 per cent this year as against 31 per cent last year. Despite this projection, we have seen that there are good fundamental reasons why the market is in such a buoyant position,'' Shine said after inaugurating a new design institute in India's 'diamond city'.

He added that the 20 per cent figure ''is a forecast ... we still expect a double-digit growth in this industry in India and China as well every year.''

Shine led a DTC delegation to Surat, and inaugurated 'City Centre' set up at Vesu near the city by the Indian Diamond Institute (IDI) as a world class diamond and jewellery design centre.

Built at a cost of Rs13 crore, the institute was inaugurated by Shine in the presence of diamond industry leaders from Surat, Mumbai and Jaipur on Tuesday.

According to the Surat Diamond Association, the DTC team was here not just to inaugurate the centre, but to review its list of clients.
 
"The four-member delegation led by Shine is scheduled to review its clients (known as sightholders), who are considered amongst the world leading diamantaires, and renew their membership," SDA president Dinesh Navadia said.
 
"DTC sells around 40 per cent of the world's rough diamonds by value and has around 35 sightholders in India, of which 18 are based in Surat," he added.