Russian mining giant Alrosa has reported that its June sales of rough and polished diamonds totaled $222.4 million. In May, Alrosa sold $266 million worth of rough and polished diamonds.
Alrosa sold rough diamonds to the tune of $219.3 million in June, while polished diamond sales totaled $3.1 million. In January-June 2019, Alrosa’s rough and polished diamond sales amounted to $1.811 billion. During the six months of 2019, rough diamonds were sold for $1.784 billion, polished diamonds – for $27.3 million.
Evgeny Agureev, Director of the United Selling Organization ALROSA, said: “We keep implementing our balanced sales strategy amid the backdrop of persisting excess diamond stock both at the cutting and polishing (midstream) sector and at retailers, as well as challenges related to financing of Indian midstream business. The market is gradually entering the phase of seasonally low demand for rough diamonds, which also weighs on the industry sales numbers”.
As for the near future, Agureev remains optimistic, saying that Alrosa expects “improving demand for rough diamonds by the end of the third quarter. We also see stable jewelry demand from end consumers, which creates opportunity for the recovery of overall demand for rough diamonds on the eve of Christmas sales 2019-2020”.
