From the IFRS-based financial results posted by ALROSA for the nine months of this year, it follows that the company's net profit decreased by 79% compared to 2019, amounting to 10.9 billion rubles against 51 billion rubles a year earlier.ALROSA also lowered its forecast for rough diamond production in 2020 to 30 million carats from 34 million carats at the beginning of this year.
However, the company said that due to demand recovery following a significant drop in diamond supply in the second quarter amid the COVID-19 pandemic its revenues in the third quarter grew fivefold compared to the previous quarter and reached 49.7 billion rubles, having also increased versus the third quarter of 2019 - by 9%. At the same time, the miner’s net profit increased to 7.6 billion rubles.
Alexey Filippovsky, Deputy CEO of ALROSA commenting on the financial results, noted that from mid-August the company started to see the first signs of recovery in the diamond market followed by a stronger demand for its core products.
At the same time, he said that it is too early to speak of a full recovery. “The markets still face uncertainty caused by the pandemic's impact on the global economy and subsequent developments. The key indicator for the diamond industry will be upcoming Christmas and Chinese New Year retail sales,” Alexey Filippovsky stressed.
