Solid rises in rough and polished diamond exports in financial terms again characterised the imports/exports performance of the Belgian diamond industry in June, according to data released by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre Diamond Office.

Buyers continue to be willing to pay higher prices per carat for polished goods, indicating that restocking at both the wholesale and retail levels following the drawing down of goods that characterised business during the global recession.
 
In rough diamonds, the substantial increases in volume and financial terms of imports and exports in June seem to show that manufacturers believe prices of rough goods will continue to rise and that there is sufficient demand at the retail level to justify paying higher rough prices for rough to cut and polish.
 
Although Belgian polished diamond exports in June increased by just 3.25 percent in volume terms from a year earlier to 680,720 carats, they soared 44.5 percent in financial terms to $1.09 billion.
 
In similar vein, in the first half of the year, polished diamond exports climbed 2.5 percent from the same period of 2009 to 3.63 million carats, there was a 32.2 percent rise in value terms to $5.35 billion.
 
In polished diamond imports, Belgium bought 664,893 carats in June, a decline of 1.5 percent from June 2009, but there was a 40.3 percent rise in financial terms to $1.06 billion. For the January-June period, polished diamond imports increased 2.7 percent from a year earlier to 3.87 million carats worth $5.04 billion, a rise of 30.8 percent.
 
In rough goods, Belgium exported 13.7 million carats in June, a rise of 28.0 percent, worth $1.02 billion, an increase of 57.4 percent.
 
For the first six months of this year, rough exports soared 78.9 percent to 69.9 million carats worth $5.68 billion, a jump of 87.8 percent.
 
In rough diamond imports, Belgium bought 9.75 million carats of rough goods in June worth $885.7 million, increases respectively of 24.8 percent and 34.6 percent, from the same month last year.
 
In the first half of 2010, rough diamond imports rose sharply – up 57.4 percent on the same period of 2009 to 60.1 million carats worth $4.9 billion, a rise of 84.8 percent.