De Beers Sales Drop at Sixth Cycle

RAPAPORT... De Beers sold $530 million of rough diamonds at its July cycleamid a seasonal slowdown in the market, the company said Tuesday. "Demand for De Beers' rough diamonds was in line withexpectations during the seasonally quieter summer period for the industry'smidstream sector," said CEO Bruce Cleaver. Revenue from the sixth sales cycle, including last week'ssight, dropped 9% from $581 million during the previous cycle. Proceeds fell 8%versus a year ago. De Beers' rough sales slipped 2% to $3.42 billion inits first six sales of the year, according to Rapaport calculations. Rough-diamondsales were flat in the first half of the year at $2.9 billion, the minerreported last week.