Alrosa Sales Slide Heavily in May

RAPAPORT... Alrosa's diamond sales plunged 85% to $40.1 million in May as the miner allowed customers to defer purchases.Rough sales slumped 86% year on year to $36.2 million, while polished revenues fell 22% to $3.9 million, the Russian miner reported Wednesday.However, total sales of rough and polished were still nearly triple April's $15.6, showing the beginning of a rebound in demand."In May, our long-term clients, like earlier in April, were granted an opportunity to postpone [purchases] under long-term agreements to a later period of the year," said Alrosa deputy CEO Evgeny Agureev. "[We] kept the same approach for [our] June trading session. We believe that our approach to avoid putting pressure on the market will accelerate recovery of the market of supply-and-demand balance." Total sales dropped 40% to $959.9 million in the first five months of the year, with rough revenues down 41% to $930.6 million. Polished sales rose 22% to $29.3 million, partly reflecting Alrosa's acquisition of Russian manufacturer Kristall at the end of 2019.The miner believes demand will pick up further before the end of the year."According to our estimates, buying activity [in] the midstream will resume in the middle of the third quarter," Agureev added.Image: Rough diamonds. (Alrosa)