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MOSCOW, May 18 (Reuters) - Russian state-controlled diamond
producer Alrosa expects to produce at least 33 million
carats of the precious stones in 2022, up from 31.5 million
carats this year, it said on Tuesday.
Alrosa, which competes with Anglo American unit De
Beers, is gradually restoring production after last year's 22%
reduction when global diamond sales were hit by the COVID-19
pandemic.
Global demand for rough diamonds started to recover in the
second half of 2020. This helped Alrosa to reduce its stockpile
to 12.8 million carats from 20.7 million carats at the end of
2020.
Alrosa expects its stockpile to be between 11 million and 12
million carats at the end of 2021, Chief Financial Officer
Alexey Philippovskiy said on a conference call on Tuesday.
The company also said on Tuesday that its first-quarter core
earnings rose 12% year on year to 33.5 billion roubles ($454
million) on revenue up 45% at 90.8 billion roubles.
($1 = 73.7250 roubles)
(Reporting by Anastasia Lyrchikova
Writing by Polina Devitt
Editing by David Goodman)
