Antwerp keeps most of its share of Russian diamond sales

MOSCOW (Reuters) - European diamond hub Antwerp has lost only two to three percentage points of its share of Russian diamond sales after producer Alrosa signed a dozen deals directly with India, the head of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) said on Tuesday.

"A very small market share, a couple of percent has been diverted to India," AWDC President Stephane Fischler told Reuters on the sidelines of the annual World Diamond Council meeting in Moscow.

Russia's Alrosa signed the deals last year, against the backdrop of Russian-Western political tensions, to sell to Indian buyers direct, instead of via Antwerp and other hubs.

"Today I think we are still at 51-52 percent of the whole Alrosa production. We were in the past maybe at 54-55 percent, Fischler said.

The political tension over Ukraine is a challenge, he said, adding: "everybody is acting responsibly at this moment, whether it's Europe, whether it's Russia."

Last year Alrosa earned $2.6 billion of its $5.4 billion in revenue from sales to Belgium, compared to $686 million from direct sales to India.

The European Union and the United States last year imposed sanctions on Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis, though they did not target the diamond trade.

The EU had considered restricting diamond imports from Russia but decided not to, according to media reports.

Indian buyers would like to expand direct deals with Alrosa to minimise transaction costs, the chairman of India's GJEPC diamond buyers' lobby Vipul Shah told reporters in Moscow. Global diamond oversupply is badly hitting thousands of Indian cutters and polishers.

(Reporting by Diana Asonova, editing by David Evans)