Alrosa reported that continuous Indian midstream demand resulted in $365 million in raw and polished diamond sales in May, down 9% from April but much higher than the $40.1 million recorded last year.
Rough diamond sales totaled $346 million in May, with polished diamond sales totaling $19 million. From January to May 2021, overall rough and polished diamond sales totaled $1.926 billion, with rough diamond sales being $1.855 billion and polished diamond sales being $71 million.
“Our May sales statistics reflect robust demand coming from Indian midstream,” said Evgeny Agureev, Alrosa’s Deputy CEO. Despite a significant improvement in the epidemiological situation since April and early May, cutters and polishers have fully (adapted) and are able to process all available volumes of rough diamonds. Demand for diamond jewellery is strong in all major markets. In the first four months of the year, jewellery sales in the United States increased by 30% and in China by 10%, respectively, compared to pre-Covid levels in 2019.”
Alrosa announced in a separate statement that it had facilitated the transport of 25,000 vaccine doses from Russia to Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, with another 25,000 doses due in a month.
