(IDEX Online) - ALROSA said its rough diamond sales last month amounted to $233.9 million, while sales for the first 10 months of 2018 amounted to $3.8 billion.
In October, ALROSA's total group sales were $242.8 million, a 28% decline on the year, with polished diamond sales amounting to $8.9 million.
ALROSA's total diamond sales in January-October 2018 grew 6% YoY and amounted to $3.9 billion, with polished diamond sales of $83.0 million.
"In October, demand for small-size inexpensive rough diamonds continued to remain weak," said ALROSA's 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. We expect the situation to stabilize through December this year to the first quarter of next year, with rough diamond sales expected to be in the range of 37-38 million carats. In value terms, our 2018 sales should be higher compared to the last year results".