De Beers is upbeat about demand despite diamond sale decline
Sentiment is positive heading into the Hong Kong International Jewellery Show this week, De Beers CEO Bruce Cleaver says
De Beers, the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds by value, reported a fall in the second sale of the year to $545m. De Beers reported $729m for the first sale of the year, one generally buoyed by cutters and polishers to replenish stocks after year-end sales. A year ago the second sale earned $617m. The year-to-date revenue from the two sales represented a quarter of JP Morgan Cazenove’s full-year sales forecast, said analyst Fraser Jamieson. The first two sales of last year represented 21% of the full-year figure for 2016. "We continued to see good demand across our product range in the second sales cycle, which was in line with expectations at this time of year. "Sentiment remains positive," De Beers CEO Bruce Cleaver said on Tuesday. De Beers would produce 31-million to 33-million carats this year compared with 27.3-million carats in 2016. This year’s production forecast will bring the company to the level of 2014, when it produced 32.6-million carats. De Beers reported a...
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