Diamond market continues to recover – AWDC
Antwerp, October 14, 2010 – As the fourth quarter of 2010 begins and the critical Christmas sales season approaches, data released by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre Diamond Office show that rough and polished diamonds continued to attract higher prices per carat in September. The trend has been evident for most of this year, indicating increased confidence among buyers as well as restocking in the wholesale and retail sectors.
Belgian polished diamond exports in September climbed 1.5 percent in volume terms from a year earlier to 808,518 carats, but jumped 21.0 percent in financial terms to $1.26 billion.
For the first nine months of the year, the rise in volume was similarly low and much higher in financial terms. Polished diamond exports climbed 3.0 percent from the same period of 2009 to 5.52 million carats, but rose by 27.7 percent rise in to $8.08 billion.
In polished diamond imports, Belgian diamond companies bought 820,808 carats in September, an increase of 16.4 percent from September 2009, with a 41.7 percent jump in financial terms to $1.16 billion.
For the January-September period, polished diamond imports increased by 6.2 percent from the first three-quarters of 2009 to 5.91 million carats worth $7.67 billion, a rise of 31.4 percent.
In rough goods, Belgium exported 8.86 million carats in September, a decline of 11.2 percent, worth $837.6 million, an increase of 11.8 percent.
Meanwhile, for the first nine months of this year, rough exports soared 46.6 percent to 96.2 million carats worth $8.08 billion, a rise of 60.6 percent.
In rough diamond imports, Belgium bought 5.92 million carats of rough goods last month, down 23.8 percent on September last year, worth $637.1 million, an increase of 2.9 percent.For the first three-quarters of this year, rough imports jumped 32.4 percent on the corresponding period of 2009 to 81.9 million carats worth $7.0 billion, a rise of 58.8 percent.
