Sales Cycle 3 of 2022 amounts to $565m
GAZETTE REPORTER
On the back of robust demand for rough diamonds in 2021, growing jewellery sales in the first quarter of 2022 and continued year-on-year growth in consumer demand for diamond jewellery, demand for De Beers Group rough diamonds remained strong in the third sales cycle of 2022, the company’s CEO, Bruce Cleaver, has said in an Anglo-American media statement released recently.
The De Beers Cycle 3 2022 provisional sales value represents sales as at 12 April 2022.
According to the statement, the value of rough diamond sales (global sightholder sales and auctions) for De Beers’ third sales cycle of 2022, amounts to $565 million. “As we head into the seasonally slower second quarter of the year, diamond businesses are adopting a more cautious and watchful approach in light of the war in Ukraine and associated sanctions, as well as COVID-19 lockdowns in China,” Cleaver said in the statement.
He noted that owing to the restrictions on the movement of people and products in various jurisdictions around the globe, De Beers Group has continued to implement a more flexible approach to rough diamond sales during the third sales cycle of 2022, with the sight event extended beyond its normal week-long duration.
“As a result, the provisional rough diamond sales figure quoted for Cycle 3 represents the expected sales value for the period 28 March to 12 April and remains subject to adjustment based on final completed sales,” he said.
De Beers Group is a multinational company that specialises in diamond exploration, diamond mining, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial manufacturing. The company is active in open-pit and large-scale alluvial, coastal and deep mining. It operates in 35 countries, including Botswana from where it generates 75 percent of its earnings.
De Beers’ major shareholder is Anglo American, which owns 85 percent of the company. The remaining 15 percent is owned by the Government of Botswana. De Beers Group and its partners produce around one third of the world’s rough diamonds by value. De Beers sells rough diamonds to the global diamantaires through its diamond trading and auctions businesses. It sells polished diamonds and diamond jewellery via its Forevermark and De Beers Jewellers businesses.