The trade in rough and polished diamonds continued to remain depressed in October both in value and volume terms, according to figures released by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC).

During the month, the centre exported nearly 5.8 million carats of rough at a value of US$ 545.29 million. This represented a large year-on-year decrease of 23.56% in terms of volume and 38.70% in terms of value. Rough imports fell by 11.84% in volume terms and by 30.35% in value terms – with 5.47 mn carats of rough being imported at US$ 529.28 million – as compared to a year earlier.

Trade in polished also dipped sharply during the month. Exports totalled 345,292 cts of polished at a value of US$ 671.39 million, a drop of 14.81% in volume terms, and of 29.58% in value terms year-on-year. During the month, the centre imported 420,108 cts of polished at a value of US$ 685.24 million, registering a drop of 15.65% in volume terms and a sharp 25.69% in value terms as compared to October 2018.

During the first ten months of 2019, rough exports totalled 81.85 mn cts at US$ 7.34 bn, showing a decrease of 16.67% in volume terms and of 30.15% in value terms, while rough imports of 63.53 mn cts at US$ 7.47 bn were down 14.89% y-o-y in volume terms and 28.20% in value terms.

Polished exports during Jan-Oct 2019 stood at 3.52 mn cts at US$ 8.68 bn, down 12.65% in volume and 11.73% in value, and polished imports of 4.50 mn cts at US$ 8.94 bn, were down 9.76% in volume and 10.06% in value terms y-o-y.