In yet another sign of the diamond market’s troubles, De Beers has called off the sight it scheduled for August and is combining it with the one that had been planned for October.
The new merged sight will take place Sept. 23-27.
That means De Beers will have nine allocations this year instead of its traditional 10, though a De Beers spokesperson says, “Neither sight has been canceled—they have been combined.”
De Beers is also moving up the dates of its last two sights of the year. The sight originally scheduled for Nov. 11–15 will be held Nov. 4–8, and the final 2024 sight has been rescheduled from Dec. 9–13 to Dec. 2–6.
The De Beers spokesperson tells JCK the changes are being made to “support sightholder businesses in navigating industry trading conditions, as well as to avoid timing issues with a United Nations conference set to take place in Botswana in mid-December.
“Following engagement with sightholders, we believe this revised scheduling will better support their evolving business needs as we head towards the end-of-year season and will avoid any clash with the U.N. event in Botswana.”
A De Beers communication to sightholders says that 2025 dates “remain unchanged.”
De Beers has already cut its production targets twice this year. This is the first time it has called off a sight since early 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis.
The news comes as another miner, Petra Diamonds, announced it’s postponing the August-September auction scheduled for its South African production. Instead, those goods will be sold in October.
In a statement, Petra CEO Richard Duffy said the delay will “support steps taken by major producers to restrict supply in this weaker demand period. Our expectation is that supply discipline, together with the expected seasonally stronger demand as we head towards the festive season, will provide some pricing support later in the calendar year.”
(Photo courtesy of De Beers)
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