Russia’s state-owned Alrosa has grabbed the crown from De Beers as the world’s largest diamond producer.

According to a press release, reporting what was said at the executive board meeting of Alrosa in Mirny, early this week, a draft annual report for last year was recommended for approval by the Supervisory Board, as Alrosa’s board of directors is known.

Since the board has yet to meet and vote its approval, no report has been issued yet.

However, the company releases claims this report contains an aggregate diamond sales result for 2009 of $2,212.6 million. If this includes sales of polished, as well as rough, then it marks a decline of 5.3% on 2008 when Alrosa reports selling $157.6 million worth of polished, and $2,178.8 million of rough.

A large net profit figure was reported, but when the rouble total of Rb2,348.4 million is converted, it makes just $78.3 million; in 2008, the bottom line was Rb1,574 million, and so profit has jumped 33% during the crisis year, when roughly half of the company’s sales volume was purchased by the state stockpile agency, Gokhran.

The company’s executive board has recommended that “due to the difficult economic situation of ALROSA resulting from the downturn of the global rough and polished markets, the Company’s considerable capital expenditure on underground mine construction, and a need to substantially reduce its debt obligations, the Executive Committee resolved to propose that the Supervisory Board recommend to the General Meeting of Shareholders that no dividends be paid for 2009.”

The strike-out for De Beers is in an unprecedented disclosure by Alrosa of the carat figure for mine output of rough last year. Although the state secrecy restrictions for diamond reserves, exports, and sales were relaxed several years ago, Alrosa generally does not publish production or sales volumes in carats, or an average sales price realised per carat. This year, however, is an exception to his rule.

“In spite of the recession in its sector,” the communiqué says, “ALROSA managed to preserve jobs and maintain its production levels, and produce in 2009, in the aggregate, 34 m carats of rough diamonds. This enabled the Company to rank first in the world in terms of physical volumes of diamond production.”

Anglo American Plc publishes diamond output data for De Beers in its annual reports, and De Beers issues carat breakdowns for production at each of its mines worldwide. These show that in 2007 De Beers peaked at almost 50 million carats per annum. In 2009, the total had fallen to just 24.6 million carats, three-quarters of which were mined in Botswana. In 2008, the De Beers total was 48.1 million carats.

According to De Beers’s balance-sheet for 2009, sales revenues amounted to $3.8 billion, down 44% on 2008. The after-tax bottom line for 2009 was a loss of $31 million, compared to a profit of $224 million the year before.

Credit is given to  John Helmer from Moscow by DiamondTopics.com