ALROSA, the world's largest diamond miner, announces diamond sales results for October and ten months of 2018.
In October, ALROSA Group sold $242.8 million worth of rough and polished diamonds (-28% YoY).Rough diamond sales by value amounted to $233.9 million, polished diamond sales - $8.9 million.
ALROSA's total diamond sales in January-October 2018 grew 6% YoY and amounted to $3.9 billion. During the ten months of 2018, rough diamonds were sold for $3.8 billion, polished diamonds - for $83.0 million.
"In October, demand for small-size inexpensive rough diamonds continued to remain weak. Seasonal slowdown on the threshold of Diwali, the main Indian holiday, was exacerbated by weakening Rupee/USD FX rate, a number of minor bankruptcies in India and tighter credit conditions for the cutting and polishing sector in this country, says ALROSA Deputy CEO Yury Okoemov. - We expect the situation to stabilize through December this year to the first quarter next year, rough diamond sales are expected to be in the range of 37-38 million carats. While in value terms, our 2018 sales should be higher compared to the last year results".