De Beers will allow sightholders to defer as much as 25 percent of their supply at next week’s sight as rough diamond sales continue to slide.
“We appreciate that it is currently a quiet period for trading and at sight 6 all sightholders will therefore have the option to defer up to an additional 25 percent of their total allocation (excluding whole boxes of ex-plan), per [the] intention-to-offer delivery location,” according to a De Beers notification to sightholders.
De Beers enabled a similar mechanism in the first quarter, preferring to reduce supply and maintain stable rough prices than implement sharp price cuts. The company’s rough sales fell 28 percent year on year to $2.5 billion in the first half of 2015, according to Rapaport estimates ahead of official results scheduled for July 24.
