Alrosa Allows 100% Refusals at August Sale

RAPAPORT… Alrosa will enable long-term clients to refuse all their supply allocations at this month’s contract sale, continuing the policy it introduced in July.

“We should admit that we are at the very beginning of the market recovery, which is still [tempered] by a number of external factors, including travel restrictions,” Alrosa deputy CEO Evgeny Agureev said in a statement Tuesday. “To make this positive change stick, [we] decided to keep unprecedentedly flexible sales conditions for our customers in August.”

The Russian miner has offered flexibility and maintained rough prices during the pandemic to avoid flooding the market with goods and devaluing inventories. The policy will help the industry maintain a balance between supply and demand, it argued.

The company, which sells pre-agreed quantities to contract clients on a monthly basis, allowed customers to defer their contracted allocations for the April, May and June trading sessions due to the market crisis. It extended the policy in July, enabling customers to turn down all goods without accumulating purchase obligations at the end of 2020.

Alrosa also halved the allocations it’s offering clients at the August sale onward, while allowing them to buy more if they wish. Customers will be able to review goods remotely or by visiting the company’s offices.

Image: Rough diamonds. (Alrosa)