ALROSA, the world leader in diamond production, announces the results of its rough and polished sales for December and its preliminary results for 2018. ALROSA’s rough and polished sales in December increased by 38% annually, $ 328.7 million. Rough sales reached $ 323.7 million, polished sales $ 5 million.

ALROSA total sales in 2018 was 6% year-over-year at $ 4.507 billion. Rough sales reached $ 4.442 billion, while polished sales were $ 95.3 million.

Sales growth of 6% in 2018 was driven by both strong demand for rough and positive price dynamics in the first half. Market demand was strong in all rough categories and the traditional slowdown in the second quarter, due to the season, was not felt this year. In the second half of the year, purchases of cheap products deteriorated considerably, against the backdrop of the weakening of the world market, but also because of the season and destocking at several Indian companies in the intermediate sector. At the same time, the company has been actively working to optimize its inventory, which has allowed sales to increase, despite a 8% drop in production in 2018, to 36.6 million carats,” said Evgeny Agureev, member of the management, director of the sales organization united ALROSA.

In December, sales increased by 20% in value compared to November 2018 thanks to a flexible pricing policy, adapted to the increase in demand for the season and the restocking of inventories by the companies of the polishing sector who took advantage of prices. Despite the cooling of the market in the second half of 2018, consumer demand should be stable, at least, “he added.