ALROSA announced the results of sales of rough and polished diamonds in May 2020. Total sales of diamond products in May amounted to $40.1 million. Despite the fact that this indicator shows an increase in sales compared to the previous month, sales results decreased by almost 85% compared to May 2019, when the company sold its goods worth $266 million.
The revenue from rough diamond sales stood at $36.2 million, and from polished diamond sales − at $3.9 million.
ALROSA’s total rough and polished diamond sales in January–May 2020 amounted to $959.9 million, including rough diamonds sales of $930.6 million, polished diamonds of $29.3 million.
Evgeny Agureev, ALROSA Deputy CEO, said, «Despite a noticeable increase compared to April trough levels, sales in May were expectedly low, as ALROSA remains committed to its price over volume strategy, allowing the cutters, who are just resuming their work, to reduce the accumulated rough and polished diamond stock. In May, our long-term clients, like earlier in April, were granted an opportunity to postpone the purchase under long-term agreements to a later period of the year. ALROSA kept the same approach for its June trading session. We believe that our approach to avoid putting pressure on the market will accelerate recovery of the market of supply and demand balance. According to our estimates, buying activity at the mid-stream will resume in the middle of the third quarter.»
Victoria Quiri, Correspondent of the European Bureau, Rough & Polished, Strasbourg
