After a two months rise in February and March 2012, the export price per carat of polished diamonds declined again in April 2012. In March 2012 the price per carat was 2,113 U.S. dollar while in April 2012 it descended to 1,600 U.S. dollar, AWDC reported.
The U.S. dollar value of exports of polished diamonds in April 2012 decreased 6.69 percent to 942,757,005 U.S. dollar compared to April 2011 when it equaled 1,010,297,688 U.S. dollar. There was also a decrease in volume terms. We can see a decline of 12.47 percent to 588,939.43 carats in April 2012 compared to 672,822.97 carats in April 2011, AWDC stated.
During January – April 2012 we identified a decrease in volume terms of exports of polished goods of 21.57 percent but a small rise in value of 1.62 percent.
For the import figures of polished diamonds, we can see the same trend. In April 2012, the U.S. dollar value of imported polished diamonds declined 7.65 percent to 931,210,023 U.S. dollar compared to April 2011.
There is also a decrease in volume terms. While we saw an import of 668,584.67 carats polished diamonds in April 2011, we noted 640,304.03 carats in April 2012 which implies a decline of 4.23 percent.
From January to April 2012 we identified an 11.15 percent decline in volume terms but a 10.28 percent rise in value.
When we take a look at the export figures of rough diamonds, we see an increase of 17.07 percent in volume terms when we compare April 2011 and April 2012, AWDC noted. There was also a rise in value from 1,128,928,740 U.S. dollar in April 2011 to 1,195,263,517 U.S. dollar in April 2012. In percentages that equals a 5.88 percent increase.
During the first four months of 2012, we noted a 10.71 percent decline in volume terms to a year earlier but a 3.26 percent increase in value to 4,804,145,927 U.S. dollar.
The import figures of rough diamonds in value in April 2012 mark the biggest increase to exactly one year ago. In April 2011 we noted a value of 857,285,002 U.S. dollar while in April 2012 this figure equaled 1,028,171,206 U.S. dollar which implies a rise of no less than 19.93 percent. In volume terms we saw a decrease of 2.67 percent.
From January to April 2012 the rough import figures showed an increase of 6.43 percent in value but a 13.68 percent decline in volume to 32,713,739.04 carats compared to the first four months in 2011.
Alex Shishlo, Editor in Chief of the European Bureau, Rough&Polished, Аntwerp
