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RAPAPORT... ALROSA's supervisory board approved its updated consolidated budget today for 2012 along with projected production, revenue and profit figures. ALROSA anticipates rough and polished diamond sales this year to reach $4.59 billion, or about 3 percent higher than 2011. Rough diamond production this year is expected to fall slightly to 34.4 million carats compared with 34.6 million carats in 2011. Profit is expected to reach about $1.1 billion (RUB 34.3 billion), a very slight improvement from the board's initial expectations, but the figure is up more than 16 percent from 2011, according to the company's board. To stimulate short-term prospects, ALROSA is planning to enter into additional long-term agreements to supply rough goods. The mining giant maintained that there is a ''prevalence of demand for rough diamonds'' compared with tighter supplies, moderate growth of demand for diamond jewelry from traditional markets such as the U.S. and Japan, and stable growth of polished diamond consumption from India and China. Given the current pricing environment for rough goods, ALROSA foresees the average annual price for rough diamonds to increase 1 percent year on year, but this figure was down from earlier projections of 4 percent. ALROSA considers such a moderate increase, which excludes speculation of rough diamonds, to be a stabilizing factor contributing to better prospects of the market development in 2013. Additionally, the supervisory board approved regulations and procedures for the sale of rough diamonds as earlier approved by the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia. The board also approved $2.7 million (RUB 86 million) in a cooperative agreement with Yakutia for the social support of orphans and children without parental care. New members of ALROSA’s executive committee were approved today and include, Valery Stepanovich Kornilov, the director of the Capital Construction Division; Mikhail Ivanovich Lopatinsky, the director of Mirny Mining and Processing Division and Rishat Nurgalievich Yuzmukhametov, the chairman of the Profalmaz labor union.
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