RAPAPORT... China’s polished diamond sales will grow 3 to 5 percent this year to about $290 million, De Beers’ Stephen Lussier said in a Reuters’ report, reversing an earlier prediction from the company of flat revenue for 2015.
Lussier, the head of the South African diamond group’s Forevermark brand, said “the bridal business and the gifting business, particularly amongst younger consumers in China, is really today the main growth area.”
Forevermark’s like-for-like sales in August hit a record in 2015, after Chinese Valentine’s Day – the lunar date of which can vary – fell on August 20 as opposed to the 2nd day of the same month last year, according to Reuters.
Back in August, Paul Rowley, the head of global sightholder sales at De Beers, said he expected sales to not increase in 2015. The company’s global sale of diamond rough in the first half slumped 26 percent year-on-year to 14 million carats.
A MasterCard survey done in May and June found China’s shoppers aged 18-29 said they expected to spend $4,362 on average on luxury goods in the next year, nearly double the Asia-Pacific mean of $2,584, according to Reuters. But that was before the economic unrest erupted in the Asian nation.
The Reuters report said the drop in Chinese stock market, a government clampdown on lavish spending by government officials and pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong have all raised concern luxury goods sales will fall. Yuan’s devaluation of almost 2 percent in mid-August means diamonds have become more expensive for Chinese buyers.
China’s economic slowdown would have “some impact” on De Beers’ performance but the lag would not be “dramatic,” Lussier said from Hong Kong, where he launched De Beers' annual industry report.
He said the dollar-term increase in sales was 5 percent in 2014. This compared with a 29 percent jump in revenue in 2011 and a 33 percent surge in 2010.
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