LONDON: De Beers’s diamond buyers continued to take the rare opportunity to reject stones from the biggest supplier as the company extended almost unprecedented flexibility to ease a growing crisis.
De Beers sold just $295 million of diamonds this month, 39% less than a year earlier. The sale is the latest in a series of weak offerings as many customers have refused to buy amid concerns they couldn’t make money on the rough diamonds. The Anglo American Plc unit’s sales this year are down more than $1 billion from the same time in 2018.