Anglo American plc (LON:AAL) have told the market that diamond sales have fallen across its’ second sales cycle in 2020.
The firm noted that the ongoing wave of coronavirus may have played a part in the declining sales, however shares have seen a lift on Wednesday.
Across their second 2020 cycle, Anglo American said that the value of rough diamond sales totaled $355 million.
This figure notably sees a 28% fall from $496 million versus a year ago, and down 36% from $555 million for the first cycle of 2020.
Bruce Cleaver, CEO of De Beers Group, said: “Following an improvement in demand for rough diamonds during the first sales cycle of 2020, we recognised the impact of COVID-19 Coronavirus on customers focused on supplying the Chinese market and put in place additional targeted flexibility to enable customers to defer allocations of the relevant rough diamonds.”
Anglo American start 2020 in steady fashion
A fortnight ago, Anglo American saw a steady set of fundamentals posted across their 2019 results.
The mining titan told the market that earnings had risen across 2019, however warned shareholders that trading could be hampered by tense US-China relations and the current coronavirus outbreak.
Anglo American said that revenues had jumped 10% to $29.87 billion, as underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation up 9.2% to $10.01 billion.
Profit attributable to equity shareholders was lower at $3.55 billion, but Anglo American decided to increase their dividend by 9% to 1.09 cents from 1.00 cents per share.
The firm noted that De Beers’ rough diamond production fell by 13% to 30.8 million carats, with copper production falling by 4.5% to 638,000 tonnes.
For 2020, production guidance is 32 million to 34 million carats, which means that the firm is expected a 10% jump in 2020. The miner cited an “expected increase in ore from the final open-pit cut at Venetia”.
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Metallurgical coal production rose by 5.0% to 22.9 million tonnes but at thermal coal, total export production decreased by 7.7% to 26.4 million tonnes. Additionally, platinum group metals output fell 1.5% lower to 2.1 million ounces.
Shares in Anglo American trade at 1,943p (+2.13%). 4/3/20 9:53BST.
