Alrosa announced this week that it sold rough diamonds to the Russian state gem repository Gokhran during the second quarter in a move aimed at stabilizing prices for its stones.
It was the Russian giant’s first sales to Gokhran since the economic downturn of 2009.
The exact size of the sale was not disclosed, but it is known that Alrosa’s board had approved selling up to $130 million worth of rough diamonds according to Diamond.Net.
Polished diamond prices have fallen by 20% over the last six months and The Times of India reports Alrosa’s move may rescue the struggling diamond sector in India, the world’s foremost cutter and polisher of the gems.
“The global diamond mining has gone down this year and that there is a short supply of rough diamonds. This may further increase the rough diamond prices in the short term.
However, the Alrosa took a wise decision of selling a huge stock of rough stock to Gokhran in order to reduce the diamond supply in the market. This will not only give stability to rough diamond prices, but it will also increase the prices of polished diamonds,” a DTC sightholder, who is also a client of Alrosa, said.
Alrosa supplies roughly $5 billion to the global diamond market each year, around the same as South Africa’s De Beers.