News Bureau

October 19, 2021

Alrosa’s Q3 sales +59% To $938 Million

Alrosa said its Q3 proceeds from rough and polished diamond sales totalled $938 million, down 20% quarter-on-quarter and up 59% year-on-year, including $904 million from rough and $34 million from polished diamond sales.

For the year-to-date, sales delivered a 2.1x growth to $3,274 million, including $3,133 million from rough and $141 million from polished diamond sales.

The company’s Q3 diamonds output was up 26% quarter-on-quarter (-5% year-on-year) to 8.8 million carats driven by seasonal growth in gravel processing at Almazy Anabara, increased ore processing at Udachny, and planned rise in output at the Nyurbinskaya pipe. The nine-month output rose by 1% to 23.3 million carats.

Alrosa noted that jewellery demand is strong in all the key markets. At the same time, rough diamonds stocks at miners are at minimal levels as supply structurally dropped.

“End demand remained stable in the key USA market and was supported by demand recovery in other regions, including Europe, the world’s third largest jewellery market. In China, demand growth slowed down as a number of drivers impacted the country's overall economic growth. The market is optimistic about the upcoming Christmas season, which in the USA will see an earlier than usual start this year. Jewellers started placing orders for polished diamonds as early as July,” the company said.

“Midstream has been gradually ramping up its cutting capacity after stocking up on rough diamonds in the first half of the year. Increased production of polished diamonds is due to completion of holiday orders for the USA before Indian cutters close down for the Diwali festival celebration, which will start on 4th November and last two to three weeks. Polished diamond prices stabilised in August and September, supported by solid demand from the USA and a seasonal increase in the inventories of some of the categories of polished diamonds.

“Demand for rough diamonds remains strong. Supply shortages will continue to be offset by a recovery in rough diamond prices. The rough diamond price index has returned to the 2018 levels, with polished diamond prices surpassing the 2018 average. Alrosa maintains its policy of satisfying only requests backed by the real demand to ensure sustainability of the whole diamond pipeline,” Alrosa noted.

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