ALROSA kept prices steady at its January contract sale stressing it sees no reason for prices to fall in current market conditions.
“We left prices unchanged because we see no reasons right now for them to fall, especially given they even rose slightly at the end of last year,” Andrey Zharkov, president of the Russia-based miner, was quoted as saying by the Russian news service Interfax.
Demand for rough in January was better than expected while supply levels did not increase, sources close to ALROSA explained to Rapaport News. The miner once again allowed buyers to defer up to 70 percent of goods at the sale as it did at the previous sale in December. Clients said all goods were sold at the sale.
The news comes after De Beers cut rough prices by more than 5 percent on average at its first sightholder sale of the year in Gaborone, Botswana, earlier this month, according to Rapaport News sources. De Beers reported January revenue increased to $540 million compared with $248 million in the final sales cycle of 2015.248 millions de dollars pour le dernier cycle de vente de 2015.
