After more than a few months of listless trading, Antwerp’s diamond trade showed some revival in October, especially in the rough segment which saw a 15.12% jump in exports by value matched by a 18.79% rise in volume too, according to figures released by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC).

The divergence between the volume and value of rough exports and imports that was evident over the last couple of months thus abated in October, though the trend was still evident to an extent in the export of polished.

In October, the centre exported nearly 7.05 million carats of rough at a value of US$ 830.2 million, a year-on-year jump of 18.79% in terms of volume, and of 15.12% in value terms. Rough imports too were up in volume terms – with 9.28 mn carats of rough being imported at US$ 904.3 million. However, for rough imports there was a less of a correlation in the year-on-year change, with a drop of 10.30% in volume terms, but only a marginal increase of 0.74% in value terms.

Trade in polished however, remained slow. In October 2017, the Antwerp centre exported 406,065 cts of polished at a value of US$ 818 mn, a drop of 4.36% in volume terms, but a small rise of 5.51% in value terms year-on-year. During this period, the centre imported 478,102 cts of polished at a value of US$ 787.3 mn, registering a 19.86% fall in volume with a smaller 1.08% fall in value terms as compared to October 2016.

During the first ten months of 2017, rough exports totalled 101.2 mn cts at US$ 10.14 bn, showing an increase of 16.76% in volume terms but a fall of 3.84% in value terms, while rough imports of 80 mn cts at US$ 8.98 bn were up 2.12% y-o-y in volume terms and down 11.83% in value terms.

Polished exports during the first ten months stood at 41.37 mn cts at US$ 9.50 bn, down 9.91% in volume and 6% in value, while polished imports of 48.27 mn cts  at US$ 9.42 bn, dropped 9.30% in volume and 5.97% in value terms y-o-y.