Russian major Alrosa eyeing Indian rough diamond market

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New Delhi, Dec 1: Russian diamond giant Almazy-Rossii Sakha (Alrosa) is likely to open an office here to handle rough diamond trade.

Recently, Alrosa chairman Vladimir Kalitin had announced its plan to open offices in India and the US since the company’s annual production is expected to touch $2 billion by 2005.

This assumes significance because co-operation in the diamond sector is expected to top the list of items for discussion between India and Russia later this week.

“India is seeking a direct supply of rough diamonds from Russia and the matter is expected to come up during Russian President Vladimir Putin visit,” said sources.

Industry sources said there was an urgent need to re-align rough diamond supplies to consolidate India’s position in the world diamond market and to ward off Chinese threat.

The company, which is jointly owned by the Central government in Moscow and the Republic of Sakha, operates mines throughout Russia and Angola. It produces nearly 100% of Russia’s diamonds and accounts for about 20% of the world’s rough diamonds.

The Russian company has a distribution agreement with De Beers’ marketing arm, the Diamond Trading Company (DTC), until 2006.

The Russian company last year produced about $1.8 billion worth of rough diamonds or some 22% of the total global output of about $8 billion. The small-sized diamonds or ‘Indian goods’ amount to some 60% of Alrosa’s total output.