Interfax, Russia
Sept 4 2008
Kristall to buy more rough diamonds abroad
MOSCOW Sept 4
Kristall of Smolensk, Russia’s biggest diamond cutting enterprise,
plans to spend "at least $25 million" on rough diamonds abroad this
year.
"We’ll continue to increase procurements abroad. These will soar
compared with last year. We’ll be buying at least $25 million of rough
abroad this year, and more still next year. We only bought $3 million
worth in 2007," Nikolai Afanasiyev, the company’s marketing and sales
director, told Interfax.
Kristall is, for example, De Beers’ sole Russian sight-holder, and has
a contract with the world’s biggest diamond company until 2012. "But I
don’t think De Beers will supply significantly more diamonds to us,"
Afanasiyev said.
He also said Kristall would continue to buy most of its rough from
Russian diamond miner Alrosa (RTS: ALRS). Kristall will buy around 65%
of its rough diamonds from Alrosa this year.
Kristall’s general director, Maxim Shkadov, has said the company was
buying more rough diamonds abroad partly because Alrosa had put its
prices up.
Afanasiyev, for his part, said Kristall planned to go on having
diamonds cut and polished in Armenia. Kristall agreed at the start of
this year to have diamonds which cannot be cut and polished
economically in Russia processed by Armenian cutting plants.
"We’ve already shipped 600 carats there. Of course we’ve sent our own
specialists to supervise production and quality. We’ll be building on
that cooperation and preparing to ship a similar consignment. We don’t
know what next year’s volumes will be like, because we’re only just
getting into the process," Afanasiyev said.
He said diamonds cut abroad accounted for around 1.5% of Kristall’s
turnover in 2007.