Growing confidence that the global economy is recovering appears to have received fresh confirmation from the Belgian statistics for imports and exports of both polished and rough diamonds for February. Given Antwerp's role as the largest centre in the world for the sale of rough and polished diamonds, the data released by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre Diamond Office serves as an important indicator for the state of international markets.
Belgian rough diamond exports in February soared by 164.3 percent from February 2009 to 10.8 million carats worth $904.0 million, a jump of 162.2 percent.
For the first two months of the year, rough diamond exports jumped 143.4 percent from the same period of 2009 to 21.2 million carats worth $1.72 billion, a jump of 165.1 percent.
As for imports of rough diamonds, Belgium brought 10.5 million carats of rough goods last month with a value of $781.7 million, rises of 150.2 percent and 182.0 percent, respectively on February 2009.
For January-February, rough diamond imports jumped 67.1 percent from a year earlier to 21.5 million carats worth $1.55 billion, a rise of 109.6 percent.
Meanwhile, polished exports in February totalled 582,934 carats with a value of $875.3 million, increases of 1.0 percent and 15.4 percent, respectively.
For the first two months of the year, polished exports climbed 5.4 percent to 1.1 million carats worth $1.52 billion, a jump of 15.7 percent.
In polished diamond imports, Belgium bought 573,146 carats in February, a rise of 15.3 percent from February 2009, with the diamonds' value being $662.9 million, a rise of 21.6 percent on February 2009. In January-February, polished diamond imports jumped 9.5 percent from a year earlier to 1.22 million carats worth $1.40 billion, a rise of 16.5 percent.
As for export destinations, the United States posted an 18.9 percent fall in polished diamonds in financial terms, but a 62.8 percent jump in volume, indicating a sharp rise in price per carat. For the first two months of the year, however, the United States imported 1.4 percent more diamonds at 132,000 carats worth $451.4 million – a jump of 48.5 percent.
Overall, the U. S. accounted for 11.9 percent of Belgium's polished diamonds in carat terms, and 29.6 percent in dollars. Hong Kong was the second-largest importer of Belgian polished stones last month, taking in 20.5 percent in carats, and 19.9 percent in financial terms.
Israel was the third-largest importer of Belgian gems, 8.1 percent in volume, and was followed by the UAE, Switzerland, India, China, the U.K., Italy and France.

Alex Shishlo, Editor of the Rough&Polished European Bureau in Brussels

Rough&Polished