Russian diamond mining giant ALROSA reported a steep decline in rough diamond sales during the month of October, falling 28% year-over-year and 29% from September, but has still recorded 6% growth during the first ten months of the year. In October, ALROSA Group sold $243 million worth of rough diamonds compared with $326 million in October 2017, and $331 million last month. “In October, demand for small-size inexpensive rough diamonds continued to remain weak,” says ALROSA Deputy CEO Yury Okoemov. “Seasonal slowdown on the threshold of Diwali, the main Indian holiday, was exacerbated by weakening Rupee/USD FX rate, a number of minor bankruptcies in India and tighter credit conditions for the cutting and polishing sector in this country.”

Okoemov added, “We expect the situation to stabilize through December this year to the first quarter next year; rough diamond sales are expected to be in the range of 37-38 million carats. While in value terms, our 2018 sales should be higher compared to the last year results.” Meanwhile, ALROSA sold $8.9 million in polished diamond during the month, bringing overall sales to $242.8 million. ALROSA’s rough diamond sales for the year (January-October 2018) grew nearly 6% y-o-y, to $3.8 billion from $3.6 billion. During the same time frame, the miner has sold $83.0 million in polished diamonds, compared to $79 million over the first ten months last year.

(2018/11/09, Source: Diamond Loupe)