Alrosa Sales Decline at Slower Rate

RAPAPORT... Alrosa's sales fell 24% year on year to $258.7 million inSeptember, amid continued market weakness. However, the total was the highest in four months, and reflecteda noticeable recovery in the small-stone sector, the Russian miner said last week. "It is partly due to the traditional autumn market revivalafter the holiday period, and a slight increase in demand from Indian cuttersand polishers ahead of the Diwali festival," said Alrosa deputy CEO EvgenyAgureev. "The most noticeable increase [was] sales of small-sized roughdiamonds." Rough-diamond sales decreased 23% to $256.5 million for themonth, while polished revenue plunged 69% to $2.2 million. Alrosa's sales fell34% to $2.42 billion in the first nine months of the year. Revenue from roughstones dropped 34% to $2.39 billion for the period, while polished-diamondsales slid 50% to $36.8 million. However, while sales have seen a slight boost, Alrosa thinks a full recovery will take longer. "The market is still facing low demand for rough diamonds,though there has been a gradual recovery for some categories of diamonds,"Agureev added. "We still believe it will take some time to get a balancebetween supply and demand." Agureev, who has been the director of Alrosa's United SellingOrganization (USO) since 2017, was promoted to deputy CEO of the group lastweek. "Given the difficult conditions in the global diamond markettoday, Evgeny will continue to improve the efficiency of the entire supplychain of the company and look for new approaches to stimulate rough-diamondsales, as well as to increase the level of interaction with the company'scustomers and expand the customer base," noted Alrosa CEO Sergey Ivanov. Image: Rough diamonds and a loupe. (Alrosa)