JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Diamond miner De Beers achieved an “encouraging” sales performance in the first sales cycle of this year, with industry restocking contributing to increased demand for rough diamonds.
The company sold $665-million worth of diamonds in the sales cycle, compared with sales of $445-million in the tenth cycle of 2017.
“This seasonal restocking demand does usually see a larger share of annual purchases being planned into the first sales cycle of the year by our customers,” commented CEO Bruce Cleaver.
Sales were, however, lower than the $729-million earned in the first sales cycle of 2017.
“In the equivalent sales cycle last year, sales levels benefitted from purchases that had been deferred from late 2016 as a result of the initial impact at that time of India’s demonetisation programme,” Cleaver explained.