Alrosa looks for ways to maintain sale volumes

Alrosa may adjust its strategy for 2016 with the hope to win back the last year's drop in the sales of diamonds by 30%. As the Kommersant has got to know, the company is ready to reduce transaction costs, to bet on new markets and products, such as investment diamonds and synthetic diamonds. But experts believe that the new products are unlikely to be in demand on the current market.

Alrosa’s plans to adjust the strategy are contained in the presentation of the results of its operation and the main directions of the development in 2016. The document was prepared at the end of January for a meeting at the office of the Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Trutnev, who is in charge of the industry. In fact, this is the first policy document of the Andrei Zharkov’s team, who headed Alrosa last spring. The reaction of the Deputy Prime Minister is still unknown. Alrosa claims that "the prepared materials concerned the current activities, not strategy". In 2015, Alrosa produced 38.3 million carats of diamonds, but was able to sell only a little more than 30 million carats because of the global drop in the demand on the world market and excess inventory in the gem-cutting segment. As a result, the sales fell by 24% (in value terms - by 30% to $3.43 billion). In 2016, the company waits for the maintenance of indicators of the production and revenues at the same level (34-39 million carats for $3.5 billion). But for this Alrosa must adjust its strategy for 2016.