Alrosa continues to see weak diamond demand

Alrosa's sales of rough and polished diamonds reached $318.7 million in April. Rough diamond sales amounted to $315.8 million, while those for polished diamonds stood at $2.9 million.

In the months January-April 2019, total sales came to $1,322.9 million (rough - $1,303 million; polished - $19.2 million).

Evgeny Agureev, Director of Alrosa's United Sales Organization, went out of his way to put a positive spin on the company's continuing downward sales trend.

"In the first months of 2019, the global diamond market saw a somewhat weaker demand from cutters and polishers due to both diamond stock normalization as mid-streamers in India continue to experience difficulties with access to affordable financing, and inherent cyclicality of the market. The company maintains a moderately positive outlook for the foreseeable future, expecting the market situation to improve in the second half of the year," he stated.