Russia’s ALROSA Group, the world’s largest diamond miner, announced its diamond sales results for July and seven months of 2019.
July 2019 sales of rough diamonds in value terms were $164.6 mio, polished diamond sales came at $5.9 mio. ALROSA’s sales in January-July 2019 amounted to $1,948.7 mio of rough diamonds and $33.1 mio of polished diamonds.
For comparison, in March 2019 the company sold rough diamonds worth $369.2 mio and polished diamonds worth $8.0 mio, in February the sales were $340.6 mio and $5.0 mio, respectively.
“A significant decline in diamond sales was attributable to a number of factors including a sizable level of diamond inventory overhang in the midstream built-up last year on abnormally high demand growth. This factor was exacerbated by a low availability of credit facilities issue experienced by the mid-stream, trade tensions between USA and China, and other factors,” Evgeny Agureev, Director of the United Selling Organization ALROSA and member of the Executive Committee, noted.