De Beers had a big drop in rough diamond sales during Cycle 8, with only $200 million in revenue – the second lowest figure since the miner began to report Sight totals in 2016. This represents a 60% drop compared to Cycle 8 of 2022, and a 46% drop over the previous Cycle, according to IDEX Online.
The miner also canceled its online rough auctions for the remainder of the year, which usually contribute approximately 10% of its total sales.
Over the past seven years, there has been just one instance of De Beers reporting lower sales, specifically, $116 million during cycle 6 of 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Al Cook, De Beers CEO, said: “De Beers will continue to support its Sightholders to help re-establish equilibrium between wholesale supply and demand by providing full flexibility for rough diamond allocations in Sights 9 and 10 of 2023, suspending De Beers Group online rough diamond auctions for the remainder of 2023, and investing an additional $20m in natural diamond marketing to help drive consumer demand during the holiday season.”
