De Beers Group sold $530 million worth of rough diamonds at its July (sixth) cycle, which is a drop since the fifth cycle.
“In the sixth sales cycle of the year, demand for De Beers rough diamonds was in line with expectations during the seasonally quieter summer period for the industry’s midstream sector,” said Bruce Cleaver, CEO of De Beers Group.
Revenue from the sixth sales cycle, including last week’s sight, dropped 9 per cent from $581 million during the previous cycle. Proceeds fell 8 per cent versus a year ago.
“It’s a fairly normal thing to happen,” said David Johnson, head of strategic communications at De Beers. “There tends to be a bit of a struggle at the start of the year, after the selling season in December, and then you see things start to pick up. However, in the summer there’s a lot of rough-diamond buying, and from then, the trends go down toward the end of the year again, in preparation for the selling season.”
Johnson also explained that depending on holidays such as Eid, can impact sales between each cycle, “It all really just depends on the cycle, you can’t predict these things, but the numbers for the sixth cycle this year was nothing out of the ordinary.”
Compared to numbers from last year’s cycle, De Beers is staying relatively consistent in terms of sales. This year their numbers dropped compared to last year’s in cycles one, three and six. However, they surpassed last year’s numbers in cycles two, four and five.
