The coronavirus effect: Russian diamond mining giant Alrosa has “virtually stopped” selling rough and polished diamonds in April as the miner remains “committed to its price over volume strategy”.
Alrosa sold $15.6 million worth of rough and polished diamonds in April. The revenue from rough diamond sales to third parties totaled $13.1 million, and from polished diamond sales – $2.4 million. In January-April 2020, diamond sales amounted to $919.8 million; rough diamonds were sold for $894.4 million, polished diamonds – for $25.4 million.
Alrosa’s director of the United Selling Organization of ALROSA (USO) Evgeny Agureev said that “restrictions imposed to fight the coronavirus and a decline in the demand for diamond jewellery have minimised the trade in rough and polished diamonds across the world […] Nevertheless, one should bear in mind that the challenges and restrictions faced by the market and affecting both operations and demand are of a temporary nature. We deal with a rare and limited natural resource, and consumers attach a high emotional value to natural diamonds. Like many other market players, we expect to see an upward trend in demand for diamonds as early as in the beginning of Q3”.
