Trade in rough diamonds in Antwerp continued to remain well below the levels of a year earlier, with both imports and exports sluggish in April, while the trade in polished though still down in volume terms, did register an upturn in terms of value, according to figures released by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) yesterday.

During the month of April 2019, the Antwerp centre exported over 9.03 million carats of rough at a value of US$ 1.04 billion, a year-on-year decline of 13.48% in terms of volume and 12.95% in terms of value. Rough imports too fell by 19.29% in volume terms and 16.74% in value terms – with 7.10 mn carats of rough being imported at US$ 879.54 million – as compared to a year earlier.

Trade in polished presented a mixed picture with a drop in volumes, but an increase in value terms. In April 2019, the Antwerp centre exported 316,065 cts of polished at a value of US$ 832.08 mn, a drop of 18.79% in volume terms, but a rise of 14.27% in value terms year-on-year. During the month, the centre imported 406,575 cts of polished at a value of US$ 872.91 million, registering a fall of 21.86% in volume terms but a marginal 1.25% rise in value terms as compared to April 2018.

During the first four months of 2019, rough exports totalled 36.38 mn cts at US$ 3.44 bn, showing a decrease of 16.98% in volume terms and of 24.87% in value terms, while rough imports of 26.84 mn cts at US$ 2.92 bn were down 22.92% y-o-y in volume terms and 29.09% in value terms.

Polished exports during Jan-April stood at 1.47 mn cts at US$ 3.90 bn, down 11.92% in volume and a mere 0.30% in value, and polished imports of 1.96 mn cts at US$ 4.10 bn, were down 9.33% in volume and marginally up by 1.85% in value terms y-o-y.