ALROSA’s sales of rough and polished diamonds during the month of November 2018 rose 18% over the same month a year earlier to US$ 274 million, the miner reported, indicating that this may reflect some improvement in the offtake of low-cost, small-sized rough.

Rough diamond sales during the month totalled US$ 266.6 million, while polished diamond sales amounted to US$ 7.4 million.

Total diamond sales for the first eleven months of the year were up 3.7% to US$ 4.2 billion, with rough diamond sales accounting for US$ 4.1 billion and polished diamond sales reaching US$ 90.4 million, ALROSA stated.

ALROSA Deputy CEO Yury Okoemov said, “Diamond sales in November were 13% higher by value and 25% higher by volume against October this year. This may be indicative of strengthening demand for low-cost small-sized rough diamonds, which has been declining over the past few months. However, it is too early to make final conclusions. We still see a lot of potential for the increase in demand for rough diamonds from the Indian diamond-cutting sector, which is still having trouble with access to credit.”