Diamonds are De Beers best friends

Strong demand for diamonds helped precious stones group De Beers carve out a 2.2% increase in half-year sales to $2.98bn (€2.4bn), it said today.

De Beers, 45% owned by mining group Anglo American, said consumer markets had reported good growth in retail sales of diamond jewellery during the first half of 2004.

Sales during the same period last year took a hit from the war in the Middle East and the outbreak of the SARS virus in Asia.

Reporting a 12.8% hike in first half earnings to $424m (€348m), De Beers said it expected the US dollar value of global diamond jewellery sales to be 7%-8% higher than last year.

It added that the trade was optimistic that the strong consumer demand would continue through the second half.

“Expectations are that retail sales for the year as a whole will be comfortably ahead of 2003,” the group said in its results statement for the six months to June 30.