With trade in rough and polished diamonds dipping significantly in June, the Antwerp centre ended a poor first half of the calendar year (H1 2019) that saw a marked decline in imports and exports as compared to the first six months of the previous year, according to figures released by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC).

During the month of June 2019, the centre exported over 9.50 million carats of rough at a value of US$ 805.90 million, a year-on-year decline of 14.25% in terms of volume and 26.21% in terms of value. Rough imports too fell by 8.49% in volume terms and 21.23% in value terms – with 7.28 mn carats of rough being imported at US$ 680.69 million – as compared to a year earlier.

Trade in polished also dipped during the month. Exports totalled 366,066 cts of polished at a value of US$ 835.69 million, a drop of 15.77% in volume terms, and of 19.72% in value terms year-on-year. During the month, the centre imported 468,883 cts of polished at a value of US$ 1.02 billion, registering a fall of 6.17% in volume terms and 11.67% in value terms as compared to June 2018.

During the first half of 2019, rough exports totalled 52.58 mn cts at US$ 4.98 bn, showing a decrease of 21.34% in volume terms and of 27.24% in value terms, while rough imports of 39.73 mn cts at US$ 4.36 bn were down 19.62% y-o-y in volume terms and 25.91% in value terms.

Polished exports during Jan-June 2019 stood at 2.22 mn cts at US$ 5.91 bn, down 12.73% in volume and a smaller 3.55% in value, and polished imports of 2.87 mn cts at US$ 6.17 bn, were down 7.98% in volume and by a marginal 0.05% in value terms y-o-y.