De Beers ‘encouraged’ by first sales of the year

Gaborone, Botswana--Rough diamond sales have shown signs of recovery so far in 2016, figures released last week by De Beers show. 

Accounting for both sightholder and auction sales, De Beers reported that its rough diamond sales totaled $540 million in January. That is more than double the $248 million in sales recorded in the final sales cycle of 2015.

A “positive” holiday season in the United States, combined with the fact that manufacturers and polishers bought less rough in the fourth quarter and slowed manufacturing, helped to push some of the polished diamonds through the backed-up pipeline. This, in turn, meant more companies needed to buy rough during this first sales cycle of the year.

In a statement included in De Beers’ sales news release, CEO Philippe Mellier said he was “encouraged” by the results and noted that the company will “keep working closely with our customers to deliver sustainable improvements in the diamond industry in 2016,” a year in which there is expected to be volatility in the marketplace.

It is believed that this is the first time in its 128-year history that De Beers has disclosed rough diamond sales data on a cycle-by-cycle basis.

As Mellier noted in his speech during parent company Anglo American’s investor day in December, De Beers has started releasing the cycle-by-cycle sales figures so the market doesn’t “rely on rumors” when it comes to rough diamond prices.

When asked what rumors Mellier was addressing specifically in his speech, De Beers spokesman David Johnson said it was the reports in the trade press “speculating” on what they believed the company’s rough diamond sales to be, reports that could be “significantly different” from the actual results.

Rapaport (Diamonds.net) is one example of trade website that regularly published estimated figures on De Beers’ sightholder sales.

Mellier also said that the release of the cycle-by-cycle figures was part of an effort by De Beers to increase transparency, noting in his speech that “you (meaning Anglo American investors) have been asking a lot of questions about how we are doing and you wanted to understand a little bit more (about) our business.”

There are limits, however, to how much information De Beers is willing to disclose.

The figures released last week did not include year-over-year comparisons, and Johnson said Monday that De Beers will not break down the sales value by channel, i.e. sightholder sales vs. auction sales, because it does not want