Israel’s Rough Diamond Exports Rise 36% in October

After many months of declining rough diamond exports, Israeli diamond dealers and manufacturers exported 1,788,277 carats of rough worth $264.73 million in October; a 66.9 percent increase in volume, and a 36 percent increase in value.

The rise in monthly rough exports, however, is far from offsetting the annual decline of 26.7 percent in the value of exports and 30.3 percent in volume. In the first ten months of the year, exports totaled $2.259 billion on 14.155 million carats.

The average value of exports in October stood at $148.04 p/c (per carat), and $159.58 p/c in the first ten months of 2006.

Rough diamond imports to Ramat Gan leaped dramatically during the month, rising 78.2 percent in value to $544.59 million on imports of 2.593 million carats – a 97.1 percent leap in volume.  As with October exports, the rise did not catch up with the January – October decline, though the gap narrowed to a 17.1 percent decline in value and 23.2 percent in volume – $3.723 billion and 12.344 million carats.

The average value of imports in October was $210.01 p/c, again below the ten month average of $301.60 p/c.

The difference in value between imports and exports indicates that Israel continues to polish larger goods while shipping cheaper goods for polishing to low labor cost countries such as China.