The prospects for the global diamond market in 2023 are assessed rather cautiously, given that the first sales cycle of the current year at the industry leader De Beers turned out to be very mixed. This was reported to Izvestia on February 14 by experts from the Russian Agricultural Bank.
“De Beers managed to sell its products for a total of $450 million, which is 8% higher than the December sales cycle, but 1.5 times lower than a year ago,” the financial institution said in a press release.
Experts attribute further stabilization and growth in the diamond price market, as in many other industries, to the recovery of demand from China, which is the largest consumer of diamonds after the United States due to the lifting of covid restrictions.
The Russian company Alrosa, which is one of the world leaders in diamond mining, according to experts, in 2022 managed to restore sales volumes in the equivalent of $250 million per month, including with payments in the national currencies of buyers – rupees, yuan.
“The key factor in the decrease in the company’s capitalization was the imposition of sanctions against it at the beginning of 2022, which made it very difficult to sell products in traditional markets – in the United States and Europe. In addition, the cost of the company’s products also came under pressure,” experts of Rosselkhozbank say.
In 2023, Alrosa’s dividend potential will be limited by additional taxes: the mineral extraction tax (MET) for the company from February 1 to March 31, 2023 will increase by 19 billion rubles in aggregate, specialists explained.
As for JSC Yuvelit, better known under the SOKOLOV trademark, at the end of 2021, the company was recognized as the fastest growing jewelry retailer in Russia, which was among the top 3 leaders of the Russian jewelry retail market both in terms of revenue and in terms of the number of stores.
“The debut issue of bonds in the amount of 3 billion rubles for a period of three years was very well received by Russian investors. The current coupon is 13.4% per annum with a quarterly payment, and the yield to maturity is 13.457%,” the specialists said.
On January 27, it was reported that Belgium would never approve a ban on the supply of diamonds from Russia to the European Union (EU), which other countries in the community are proposing to introduce as part of the 10th EU sanctions package. According to the Prime Minister of the Kingdom, Alexander De Croo, such restrictions can only be introduced at the global level. According to him, the supply of diamonds from the Russian Federation to Belgium since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine has already decreased by 80% due to the restructuring of supply chains.
