Diamond miner De Beers said consumer demand for diamond jewellery over the 2022 end-of-year holiday season performed well, as it sold $450 million (R7.8 billion) of rough diamonds in the first of ten sales cycles this year.
This compares with the $660m of rough diamonds sold in the first sales cycle of 2022 and the $417m of rough diamonds sold in the tenth sales cycle of 2022.
De Beers Group CEO Bruce Cleaver said: “Consumer demand for diamond jewellery over the 2022 end-of-year holiday season performed well. As expected, given the macroeconomic outlook at the time, Sightholders took a cautious approach in late 2022 in planning their 2023 allocation schedule, with a greater weighting of goods to be purchased as the year progresses.
“While there is still some uncertainty over the macroeconomic environment, we see cautious optimism for demand to increase as China continues to reopen and inflation rates start to decrease in many major economies.”
The group said owing to the restrictions on the movement of people and products in various jurisdictions around the globe, De Beers had continued to implement a more flexible approach to rough diamond sales during the first sales cycle of 2023, with the Sight event extended beyond its normal week-long duration.
“As a result, the provisional rough diamond sales figure quoted for Cycle 1 represents the expected sales value for the period January 16 and January 31 and remains subject to adjustment based on final completed sales,” it said.
BUSINESS REPORT