Russian mining giant Alrosa has announced its its Q2 2018 production performance and diamond sales, showing that despite a 15% rise quarter-on-quarter in production to 8.5 million carats, there was a drop of 18% when compared to Q2 2017. The year-on-year drop in production was attributed to the closure of the Mir mine and several other mining-related factors at other Alrosa mines.
Rough diamond sales totaled 9 million carats – down 32% quarter-on-quarter. Following sales in April through June, average realized prices grew 6% quarter-on-quarter and 18% year-on-year to $164 per carat. Sales of rough went down 33% quarter-on-quarter to to $1.057 billion. Polished diamond sales increased to $26.2 million – up 11% quarter-on-quarter and up 15% year-on-year. Alrosa still maintains its 2018 production forecast at 36.6 million carats – a decrease of 8% year-on-year.
Alrosa added its estimation that in the first three months of 2018, “the diamond jewellery market grew by 7% as all key markets enjoyed rising sales on the back of a stronger consumer sentiment and a better macro environment”. The rough diamond market in Q2 2018 “demonstrated increased demand across the entire product mix, driven by both a reduction in rough diamond supply from diamond miners, ‘normalized’ stock levels at the consumers’ (mid-stream) and ongoing diamond jewellery demand growth in key markets”.
