Russia's Alrosa expects 6% fall in first-quarter diamond sales

Russian diamond miner Alrosa expects its first-quarter sales to be down 6% at $1.25-billion compared with a year ago, the state-controlled company said in a presentation for its investor day on Wednesday. Alrosa, the world's largest producer of rough diamonds, plans to increase diamond output to 39.2-million carats in 2017 from 37.4-million carats in 2016, it said in the presentation. Production is expected to reach 40.4-million carats in 2021.