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De Beers’s diamond sales plunged to the lowest since 2017 in the company’s latest offering, underlining a slump in the industry worldwide.
Sales by the Anglo American Plc unit dropped 25% from a year ago to $415 million, and were down 29% from an offering last month. It’s often a quieter time of the year because the industry has already restocked after the key holiday period, but total sales so far in 2019 are still much weaker than in previous years.
Diamond miners are struggling across the board, especially those producing cheaper and smaller gems where there is too much supply. In December, some of Rio Tinto Group’s customers refused to buy cheaper stones, while De Beers was forced to cut prices toward the end of last year and offer concessions to buyers.
Still, De Beers has held prices relatively stable so far this year. That has led to customers declining to take up all the stones they’d previously agreed to buy as they struggle to make a profit at current prices.
For the rest of this article: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/global-diamond-glut-worsens-073148598.html