There were some signs of improvement in the exports of rough diamonds from Antwerp in November, though imports of rough remained sluggish and the trade in polished continued to dip both in value and volume terms, according to figures released by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC).

During the month, the centre exported nearly 10.64 million carats of rough at a value of US$ 849.37 million. This represented a year-on-year rise of 7.94% in terms of volume but still only resulted in a 0.96% increase in terms of value. The slowdown in rough imports continued, with the trade declining by 8.17% in volume terms and by 6.86% in value terms – with 7.64 mn carats of rough being imported at US$ 812.94 million – as compared to a year earlier.

Trade in polished continued to remain depressed with a further sharp dip during the month. Exports totalled 297,424 cts of polished at a value of US$ 672.38 million, a drop of 23.01% in volume terms, and of 22.16% in value terms year-on-year. During the month, the centre imported 315,451 cts of polished at a value of US$ 576.27 million, registering a sharp drop of 27.22% in volume terms and 26.78% in value terms as compared to November 2018.

During the first eleven months of 2019, rough exports totalled 92.49 mn cts at US$ 8.19 bn, showing a decrease of 14.42% in volume terms and of 27.84% in value terms, while rough imports of 71.18 mn cts at US$ 7.31 bn were down 14.21% y-o-y in volume terms and 26.32% in value terms.

Polished exports during Jan-Nov 2019 stood at 3.82 mn cts at a value of US$ 9.35 bn, down 13.55% in volume and 12.57% in value, and polished imports of 4.81 mn cts at US$ 9.53 bn, were down 14.21% in volume and 26.32% in value terms y-o-y.