Alrosa, the world's largest diamond miner in volume, said that in May of this year it had sold $266 million of rough and polished diamonds. Rough diamond sales amounted to $261.1 million, while polished diamond sales stood at $5 million.
The Russian miner's total rough and polished diamond sales in the January-May period came to $1.589 billion - $1.5649 billion of rough and $24.1 million of polished.
"We see the market entering its seasonal slowdown phase. The India's cutting and polishing sector is still facing a challenge of financing, which holds back the growth in demand for diamond products. The retailers' stock level remains quite high but keeps declining - this process will take some time. At the same time, we should note the activity of end consumers of jewelry products in the main markets. While the global diamond production is expected to decrease by four percent in the first quarter, compared to the same period last year. These factors give us the reasons to expect that the stock level in the system will gradually get back to normal," Evgeny Agureev, Director of the United Selling Organization ALROSA, member of the Executive Committee, said.
| Products | January | February | March | April | May |
| Rough diamonds and grinding powders, $ mln | 278,2 | 340,6 | 369,2 | 315,8 | 261,1 |
| Polished diamonds, $ mln | 3,4 | 5,0 | 8,0 | 2,9 | 5,0 |
| Total rough and polished diamonds, $ mln | 281,6 | 345,6 | 377,1 | 318,7 | 266,0 |