Alrosa Sales Total $667 Million for January and February

Alrosa sold $667 million worth of cut and rough diamonds in January and February, the Russian diamond monopoly said in a statement published by Interfax. "The company notes that demand for rough diamonds is robust, enabling us to sell all of our output on the market," Alrosa stated.

After the low level of sales Alrosa suffered from in 2009, forcing it to sell the majority of its goods to the state precious metals and gemstones repository Gokhran, the company believes this year its sales to the open market will be robust.

"We've budgeted for $870 million in diamond sales to the Gokhran this year, but we are discussing the feasibility of this with the Finance Ministry because in our estimates, we'll be able to sell everything on the market fairly successfully unless there's a second wave of crisis," Alrosa President Fyodor Andreyev told Interfax last week.

Gokhran bought approximately $1.09 billion worth of rough from Alrosa last year. Alrosa returned to the market in July, focusing on long-term contracts which it says will amount to 70 percent of the company’s overall sales in 2010.

The company told IDEX Online that it expects to increase its sales to the Indian market, which bought about half of Alrosa’s open market sales.

The company is forecasting $2.314 billion in mine output and $3.3 billion in sales revenue in 2010.