De Beers to keep rough prices stable

Cutters immediately appeared to be buying based less on speculation and more on need after the February sight. It seems they've been waiting for someone to calm the rough market.

De Beers wasn't the only firm to forecast a slowdown in the rough market. Bloomberg quoted Petra Diamonds' chief executive officer (CEO), Johan Dippenaar, as saying that gains in rough diamond prices were likely to slow in 2010.  "We don't expect big increases. They should be fairly steady," he noted.  Similarly, ALROSA expressed the need to stabilize the market, adding that it plans to increase its supply through long-term contracts as a means to achieve that end.