Alrosa says boosted sales 13% in Nov, but 'too early to make final conclusions' about demand for low-cost diamonds
MOSCOW. Dec 10 (Interfax) - Alrosa sold $274 million in rough and polished sales in November, up 13% from $242.8 million in October 2018, the company said in a statement.
Rough diamond sales amounted to $266.6 million and polished diamond sales to $7.4 million.
Diamond sales were down 18% from $334 million in November last year.
Diamond sales in January-November 2018 grew 3.7% year-on-year to $4.179 billion, including rough diamonds - $4.088 billion and polished diamonds - $90.4 million.
"Diamond sales in November were 13% higher by value and 25% higher by volume against October this year. This may be indicative of strengthening demand for low-cost small-sized rough diamonds, which has been declining over the past few months. However, it is too early to make final conclusions. We still see a lot of potential for the increase in demand for rough diamonds from the Indian diamond-cutting sector, which is still having trouble with access to credit," commented on the sales results in November," said Alrosa Deputy CEO Yury Okoemov.
Small-size rough diamonds with sight categories of 11 or below account for about 40% of Alrosa production and 20%-25% by value, Okoemov said in November. This niche was under the pressure beginning in September, causing Alrosa to lower its sales guidance for 2018 by 6%, to 37-38 million tonnes carats.