Putin’s pride. The world’s largest Russian manufacturer is losing market positions and cutting staff

Reuters writes about it.

“Alrosa, the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds by volume, last month announced plans to halt some production in 2025 and cut staff as it struggles with low global prices,” the publication said.

Last year, the company reduced production by 2.8% to 34.6 million carats.

At the same time, for Alrosa, the global industry crisis is exacerbated by the ban on the sale of Russian diamonds to the G7 countries and the EU.

As reported, Botswana and Angola joined the G7 initiative aimed at excluding Russia from the global diamond market.

At the same time, a subsidiary of the Omani sovereign welfare fund replaces the Russian Alrosa in the Angolan state diamond mining company Catoca.

The Russian company competes with De Beers Anglo American as the world’s largest diamond producer.

Western sanctions hit the export of Russian diamonds to India, which is the world’s largest diamond processing center. In September, Russia’s deliveries to the country fell by 96%, or almost 25 times compared to the same period last year.

The G7 countries banned the import of Russian diamonds from January 1, 2024, and from March 1 extended the ban to shipments of stones processed in third countries. At the same time, India is the largest exporter of processed diamonds in the world with a share of 26.5%.