India’s exports of cut and polished diamonds declined by 5.67% during January 2020 registering $ 1.65 bln, against $ 1.75 bln during January 2019, according to the provisional data released by The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council of India (GJEPC). Rough diamond imports, too, dipped during January, dropping by 11.02% to $ 763.09 mln as compared to $ 857.60 mln imported during January 2019. In volume terms, however, rough imports rose by 22.82% from 8.36 mn carats during January 2019 to 10.28 mn carats in January 2020.
Imports of cut and polished diamonds rose to $ 160.29 mln in January 2020 from $ 86.32 mln in January 2019.
Exports of rough diamonds totalled $ 74.46 mln in January 2020 as compared to $ 101.61 mln a year earlier, with volumes at 2.16 mn cts, down from 3.21 mln cts a year earlier.
Exports of polished lab-grown diamonds stood at $ 44.10 mln during the month as against $ 20.87 mln a year earlier, while imports of polished lab-grown diamonds declined to $ 12.48 mln in January 2020 as compared to $ 20.38 mn a year earlier.
Imports of rough lab-grown diamonds stood at $ 42.43 mln during January 2020, up from $ 14.44 mln during January 2019. For the first nine months of the current fiscal, polished diamond exports during April ’19 – January 2020 were down 16.80% to $ 16.32 bln as against the $ 19.61 bln exported over the same months in 2019.
Imports of polished diamonds rose by 8.94% to $ 1.22 bln as compared to $ 1.12 bln for the same period of the previous year fiscal year.
During April ’19 – January 2020, import of rough diamonds showed a decline of 15.54% to $ 10.92 bln from $ 12.93 bln a year earlier. In volume terms, imports fell by 5.62% from 134.66 mn cts in April ’19 -Jan 2019 to 127.10 mln cts in the same period in the current fiscal.
Exports of rough diamonds totalled $ 955.36 mln in April ’19 – Jan ’20 as compared to $ 1,031.45 mn in the same period a year earlier.
Meanwhile, exports of rough lab-grown diamonds stood at $ 7.12 mln in April 2019 – January 2020 as against $ 11.27 mln in the same period a year earlier. Exports of polished lab-grown diamonds stood at $ 356.16 mln during the April ’19 – January 2020 as against $ 172.09 mln in the same period a year earlier.
Imports of rough lab-grown diamonds stood at $ 293.13 mln during April 2019 – January 2020, up from imports of $ 114.26 mln a year ago, while imports of polished lab-grown diamonds rose to $ 86.47 mln in April 2019 – January 2020 as compared to $ 72.93 mln during the same period a year earlier.
Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough & Polished
