De Beers' sales drop 44 percent, to $280 million, in seventh cycle sales

In one of its shortest press announcements ever, De Beers published the results of its seventh sales cycle - what the diamond industry and trade continues to call a "sight."

The seventh sight generated $280 million, a whopping 44 percent less than the $503 of the same cycle in 2018. The current sales number is slightly higher than the $250 in the sixth cycle.

Bruce Cleaver, CEO, De Beers Group, said: "With midstream participants continuing to work down polished diamond inventory levels and reduced levels of manufacturing in the key cutting centres, De Beers Group provided customers with further supply flexibility during the seventh cycle of 2019."

De Beers, however, is not alone in its disappointing sales in 2019. Alrosa has seen a drop in sales of rough of more than 40 percent to date in 2019. The industry's largest diamond manufacturing business community, in Surat and Mumbai, is sitting on huge inventories of rough and therefore are reluctant, if not refusing, to buy additional rough.