Antwerp Takes Advantage of Crisis and Stocks Up On Polished in August

(IDEX Online News) – Polished diamond trade through Antwerp was slow in August, reflecting the tough economic state of the trade – as well as Europe's. Polished diamond exports fell 23.4 percent year on year to $404.4 million.

Belgium's diamond sector was mostly on vacation in August, as evident from the 50.7 percent month-over-month decline.

However, the figures, released Monday by AWDC, also show that traders accumulated many goods. Polished diamond imports of $760.7 million worth of polished diamonds are 88.1 percent more goods then were exported.

The volume of trade also declined. Exports of 263,299 carats are 19.1 percent year-over-year decline. Imports declined 19.8 percent to 539,877 carats, according to AWDC.

Not all declines were that drastic. It seems that price points are somewhat immune to the economic situation. The average value of exports stood at $1,535.81 per carat (p/c) in August, a 5.3 percent decline.

The average value of imports declined only 4.0 percent to $1,408.97 p/c.

The difference in average value between imports and exports indicates the trade's added value – in this case 9.0 percent.

AWDC sought to emphasize that Belgium is faring better than the two other main trading centers, India and Israel, by comparing imports by the U.S.

Imports from Belgium in the first half of 2012 increased 2.0 percent year-over-year, while imports from Israel declined 5.9 percent and India by 14.0 percent.

Belgian exports of smaller goods – 0.50 carat and smaller – were the engine that pulled up its exports to the U.S., up 60.6 percent.

However, India remains the main supplier of smaller goods to the U.S., $774.6 million in the first half of 2012, or 68 percent of total supply of smaller goods in the period, compared to Israel's 9.4 percent and Belgium's 7.2 percent.

Belgium's market share of the total supply was 18.3 percent compared with Israel's 44.8 percent and India's 25 percent.