Russian diamond mining diamond Alrosa has reported its diamond production and sales for the 4th quarter of 2019. Alrosa added that during the 4th quarter, the market environment normalized, and that a flexible sales approach of diamond miners helped stabilize the demand.
During the quarter, production went down 15% year-on-year to 8.8 million carats, “ due to lower production at the Jubilee pipe and the International underground mine”. However, production increased by 5% to 38.5 million carats for the entire year, driven by higher production at the Botuobinskaya pipe and ramp-up at the V.Munskoye deposit.
As for sales by volume, these fell 9% year-on-year to 8.2 million carats, but went up 28% quarter-over-quarter “amid stabilizing demand as the market is gradually turning into balance”. Sales decreased by 12% to 33.4 million carats for the 12 months. During the quarter, the average price per carat was down 3% year-on-year to $148 per carat, but up 9% quarter-on-quarter to reflect and improving trend. For the year, the average price per carat was down 19% to $133.
Revenue from rough and polished diamond sales for Q4 were up 8% year-on-year to $916 million. For the year, revenue totaled $3.338 billion (down 26%). Q4 diamond sales increased 8% year-on-year to $888 million, with the total for the year amounting to $3.273 billion (down 26%).
