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Alrosa Sees Summer Drop in Rough Demand
Aug 14, 2017 5:38 AM
By Rapaport News
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RAPAPORT... Alrosa sold $293.5 million worth of diamonds in
July, reporting a fall in demand before the summer vacation period.
Rough-diamond sales came to $286.1 million,
and polished-diamond sales stood at $7.4 million, the Russian miner said over
the weekend.
“In July, there was a seasonal drop in
demand on the market in the run-up to August holidays,”
Alrosa vice president Yury Okoemov said. In June, the company recorded total diamond revenue of $365 million.
The first half of the year, meanwhile, saw good
demand for rough amid rising prices, Okoemov added. Even so, first-half rough sales declined an
estimated 4% as the miner sold off lower-value inventory than it had a year earlier.
While last year, Alrosa sold a lot of high-value inventory that had accumulated
in the 2015 downturn, its stock this year consisted of smaller and lower-quality
diamonds that had built up due to India’s November 2016 demonetization policy,
which led to a drop in demand from Indian manufacturers.
In the first seven months of 2017, Alrosa’s
total rough and polished revenue stood at $2.79 billion, with rough sales at $2.73
billion and proceeds from polished diamonds amounting to $62.3 million.
The results came out as rescue teams continued
to hunt for eight miners missing after a flood at the company’s Mir mine in Russia’s
Yakutia region. The August 4 accident occurred when water rushed into the
underground facility following a sharp deterioration in mining and geological
conditions, Alrosa said at the time. Russian federal authorities are looking
into whether there were violations of safety rules at the mine.
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Tags:
Alrosa, mining, Mir, Mir mine, Rapaport News, Rough Diamonds, rough sales
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