ALROSA Increases Rough & Polished Diamond Sales 6 Per Cent to $4.5 Bln In 2018

ALROSA December sales of rough and polished diamonds increased by 38 per cent Y-O-Y to $328.7. Rough diamond sales reached $323.7 million, polished diamond sales were $5 million.

ALROSA's total diamond sales in 2018 grew 6 per cent per cent to $4.507 billion. Rough diamonds sales grew to $4.412 billion, polished diamonds sales stood at $95.3 million.

"A 6 per cent  sales growth in 2018 was driven by both high demand for rough diamonds and positive price dynamics in the first half of the year, market demand was strong in all rough diamond categories, and traditional slowdown in demand in the second quarter due to seasonality was not registered this year. In the second half of the year, buying activity in the low-priced product segment significantly deteriorated due to weakening of the global market situation and both seasonality and destocking at a number of Indian midstream companies. At the same time, the company was actively engaged in optimizing its stocks, which made it possible to increase sales in physical terms, despite a decline in production in 2018 by 8 per cent to 36.6 million carats," - Evgeny Agureev, Member of the Management Board, Director of the United Sales Organization at ALROSA, said.

"In December, sales in value terms increased by 20 per cent compared to November 2018 due to a flexible pricing policy against the background of seasonal renewed demand and replenishment of stocks by the companies in the cutting sector, which took advantage of the pricing environment. Despite the cooling of the market in the second half of 2018, we expect that the final customers demand will remain at least stable," he added.