(IDEX Online) - ALROSA reported the sale of $323.7 million of rough in December and $4.41 billion for all of 2018.
ALROSA's December sales of rough and polished diamonds increased by 38% YoY to $328.7, with polished diamond sales of $5 million.
Meanwhile, its total diamond sales in 2018 grew 6% YoY to $4.51 billion, with polished sales of $95.3 million.
"A 6% sales growth in 2018 was driven by both high demand for rough diamonds and positive price dynamics in the first half of the year, market demand was strong in all rough diamond categories, and traditional slowdown in demand in the second quarter due to seasonality was not registered this year," said Evgeny Agureev, Member of the Management Board, Director of the United Sales Organization at ALROSA.
"In the second half of the year, buying activity in the low-priced product segment significantly deteriorated due to a weakening of the global market situation and both seasonality and destocking at a number of Indian midstream companies. At the same time, the company was actively engaged in optimizing its stocks, which made it possible to increase sales in physical terms, despite a decline in production in 2018 by 8% to 36.6 million carats.
"In December, sales in value terms increased by 20% compared to November 2018 due to a flexible pricing policy against the background of seasonal renewed demand and replenishment of stocks by the companies in the cutting sector, which took advantage of the pricing environment. Despite the cooling of the market in the second half of 2018, we expect that the final customer demand will remain at least stable," he added.