Alrosa’s diamond revenues for May jumped 33 percent year on year to $472.1 million, the Russian miner reported last week.
Rough-diamond sales amounted to $467.6 million for the month, while polished revenue was $4.5 million. For the January-to-May period, sales fell 5% to at least $2.13 billion, of which $2.09 billion was from its rough business and $44.3 million was from polished.
Alrosa vice president Yury Okoemov attributed the decline in overall sales to a higher proportion of lower-value goods during the beginning of the year. Between January and April, revenue slid 12.5% to $1.7 billion as the company sold off those diamonds, following a period of lower demand in November and December due to India’s demonetization policy.
The announcement came after De Beers reported rough-demand sales of $520 million in May — 18% lower than the equivalent sight a year ago. De Beers’ sales in the first four sights of the year declined 3% to $2.39 billion, according to Rapaport records.
Source: Rapaport News
