De Beers Sales of $418 Million at Sight as Demonetization Hits Lower Value Items

(IDEX Online) – De Beers said the value of rough diamond sales (Global Sightholder Sales and Auction Sales) for the tenth sales cycle of 2016 was a provisional $418 million.

The miner also said the actual value of goods for its previous sales cycle was $476 million, compared with a provisional figure of $470 million stated last month.

The December figure compares with sales of $248 million for the same month last year when rough sales were battered by a large downturn in demand as manufacturers cut back production in protest at high rough prices.

Bruce Cleaver, CEO, De Beers Group, said: “We continued to see good demand for De Beers' rough diamonds in our latest sales cycle. While the trade in lower value rough diamonds is experiencing a temporary slowdown as a result of the demonetization program in India, demand across the rest of the product mix continued to be healthy and overall sales remained in line with seasonal expectations. Pleasingly, sales were also significantly higher than those for the equivalent cycle in 2015.”