10 Oct 2019 13:20

Alrosa boosts Sept diamond sales 42% compared to Aug to $258.7 mln

MOSCOW. Oct 10 (Interfax) - Alrosa sold $258.7 million in rough and polished diamonds in September, up 42% over August sales of $181.8 million, the company said in a statement.

Rough diamond sales by value amounted to $256.5 million and polished diamond sales to $2.2 million.

This was the second straight month of rising sales following decline in April-July.

Sales were down 24% year-on-year, from $338.7 million in September 2018. August 2019 sales were down 38% year-on-year.

"September sales were higher than sales in the three previous months. It is partly due to the traditional autumn market revival after the holiday period and a slight increase in demand from Indian cutters and polishers ahead of the Diwali festival. The most noticeably increased sales of small-size rough diamonds. In addition, some sales from the August session, which started later than usual, moved to September. The market is still facing low demand for rough diamonds, though there has been a gradual recovery for some categories of diamonds. We still believe that it will take some time to get a balance between supply and demand," said Alrosa Deputy CEO Evgeny Agureev.

Alrosa's total rough and polished diamond sales in January-September 2019 amounted to $2.422 billion, down 34% from $3.662 billion in the same period last year. The total included $2.385 billion in rough diamonds and $36.8 million in polished diamonds.

De Beers boosted diamond sales 3% in September compared with August to $295 million. Sales fell 39% year-on-year.