Last Updated : 22 October 2009 at 16:15 IST

India’s polished diamond exports up by 11%

SHARE THIS STORY

SURAT (Commodity Online): Despite rising demand for rough diamonds across the globe, India’s September trade figures show that imports are still well below last year’s imports.

India imported $689.56 million worth of rough, 25.1 per cent less than in September 2008. The volume of imports fell 20.7 per cent to 11.92 million carats.

The comparison to last year may not provide a full picture. Compared to August, India’s imports soared by 60.1 per cent in value and by 82.9 per cent by volume.

Indian manufacturers are busy with a flurry of polishing activity, shortening Diwali vacations to continue manufacturing.

The average value of imports, which include gem, near-gem and industrial-quality goods, stood at $57.86 per carat, compared to an average of $66.10 p/c in August.

Rough diamond exports in September stood at $73.29 million for shipments of 2.29 million carats, a minuscule 0.6 per cent increase in value and a 41.8 percent drop in volume compared to September 2008.

India’s polished exports grew for the first time this year in September, up 11 per cent from 2008, to $1.76 billion.

By volume, exports rose 12 per cent to 4.613 million carats as average prices were down 1 per cent to $381.88 per carat. Polished imports fell 18 per cent to $584.9 million and net polished exports, representing the excess of exports over imports, rose 35 per cent to $1.2 billion.

India’s September net diamond account, measuring total exports of polished and rough less total imports, grew to $560.4 million, compared with $23.7 million one year ago.

For the year to date through September, India’s polished exports fell 22 per cent to $9.59 billion, while polished imports dropped 12 per cent to $5.07 billion. Net polished exports declined 30 per cent to $4.52 billion.

Rough imports decreased 46 per cent to $4.52 billion and rough exports were down by 17 per cent to $524.6 million. Net rough imports fell 49 per cent to $3.99 billion. India’s net diamond account for the first nine months of the year was $521 million, compared with negative $1.33 billion a year earlier.