Alrosa & Kristall-Smolensk Meet With NYC Diamond Community

The key leadership of Alrosa and Kristall-Smolensk met with members of New York’s diamond community at the DDC headquarters yesterday (Tuesday). During the Meeting Alrosa’s President Alexander O. Nichiporuk spoke of his plans to supply rough to the market.

In his address, Nichiporuk expanded on Alrosa’s plans to decrease its rough sales to De Beers and make the resulting rough surplus available to the market allowing Alrosa to diversify its sales, which he admitted had been lacking in the past few years.

He mentioned Alrosa’s continuing efforts to remove the remaining rough export restrictions currently in place in Russia and allow for a unified market for all buyers, moving away from the current two seperate channels: one for the Russian domestic market and one for foreign markets.

Expressing a belief that the steps between Alrosa and the Russian government should help all producers and specifically benefit the American market tremendously, he said, “Free access to rough for all will allow prices to be dictated by market demands.”

“The main target of Alrosa is to expand the output of rough, to diversify the availability of rough, and to establish close ties with rough users worldwide,” Nichiporuk added.

“In our delegation today we have the people of Kristall-Smolensk who have experience with direct selling to the American market. We realize the American market is very important with nearly 60 percent of all diamonds coming through New York. This is a very significant level. New York is the gateway to the American diamond market. We wish to have direct ties to diamond producers here in America, and now we must explore what manner this cooperation must take.”

With particular emphasis, Nichiporuk expressed a desire to allow rough access to all. “We wish to avoid any kind of monopolies. We want all buyers in America to have access to our rough.”

When questioned how Alrosa intends to release rough in such a unified market, Nichiporuk replied, “We will use two rough systems. There will be rough tenders to realize higher prices as well as a Sightholder system to assure and allow for revenue stability during times of fluctuating demands.”

Alrosa and De Beers offered the EU to decrease the sale of Russian rough diamonds from a maximum of $700 million to $275 million over five years.  The proposal is yet to be approved, but Alrosa seems to believe it is merely a matter of time before it happens.

Members of the New York diamond community expressed interest in a continuing open dialogue, suggesting the NY DDC’s recently reconstituted Diamond Industry Steering Committee (DISC) as a potential catalyst for such inroads, for Alrosa and Kristall into the American market. 

Accompanying Nichiporuk were Sergey Oulin and Yuri A. Dudenkov, both Vice-Presidents of Alrosa, Maxim A. Shkadov, Director General of Kristall-Smolensk, Nikolay V. Afanasyev, the Deputy Director General – Marketing and Sales Director of Kristall and, also representing Kristall, in the delegation was Alexander Malinin, Director of the Russian Diamond Club.

The New Yorkers in attendance included DDC President Jacob Banda and Carl Edelstein, Jeff Fischer, Ronald Friedman, Eli Gottlieb, Martin Hochbaum, Yaron Hahami, Eli Izhakoff, Basant Johari, Elliot Krischer, Adam Mirzoeff, Nissan Perla, Sylvain Ringer, Ronnie Van Der Linden, David Abraham and Jacob Weinstock.