Alrosa further eased its sales policies amid market uncertainties, allowing clients to initially buy 40 per cent of their contracted volume of rough diamonds at its March trading session.

The company said it had been giving long-term customers more trading flexibility since the start of the year, citing difficulties in the trade. Under a stable market environment, Alrosa’s clients are required to purchase 80 per cent of the goods reserved for them, as was the case in 2018. The number has since been reduced to 70 per cent by mid-2019, and furthermore to 50 per cent. 

At the start of the March trading session, Alrosa allowed its customers to purchase 40 per cent of their contracted portion of rough goods and secure the rest until end-May 2020.

“Amid such market uncertainty, it wouldn’t be right to keep our customers tied to their original contracts. We hope that Alrosa’s flexible sales policy and support measures will help market participants adapt to the new conditions, and pass them successfully through,” said Evgeny Agureev, deputy CEO of Alrosa. 

In another development, Alrosa’s supervisory board has re-elected Sergey Ivanov as CEO and chairman of the executive committee for five more years.