(IDEX Online) - Alrosa's combined rough and polished diamond sales totalled $181.8 million in August. Rough diamond sales by value amounted to $180.2 million with polished diamond sales falling to just $1.5 million.
Despite the second-weakest month of the year, the results were an improvement on July when total sales totalled $170.5 million.
For the first time since 2010, August sales outperformed July sales. The company put this improvement down to diamond cutters and polishers replenishing their stock.
Since the beginning of the year, Alrosa's total rough and polished diamond sales total $2,163.6 million. During the eight months of 2019, rough diamonds were sold for $2,129 million. polished diamond sales since the start of 2019 have hit $34.6 million.
"The diamond market is still experiencing headwinds from both macroeconomic and industry specific factors, which have an adverse impact on the midstream," said Evgeny Agureev, director of the miner's United Selling Organization. "There is also a seasonal slowdown weighing on the summer sales," he added.
The company's outlook, however, is fairly positive. "It is still too early to come to firm conclusions based upon it. However, we are still expecting that after a significant decrease in rough diamond supply by major diamond producers since the beginning of the year, the excess stock in the system is decreasing. This will help to restore supply and demand balance which should not take too long," said Agureev.