Substantial
increases in exports of rough and polished goods from Antwerp were again posted
in July, according to data released by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre Diamond
Office.

The trend
of higher prices per carat is also continuing, showing strong demand for both
rough and polished as the jewellery pipeline restocks, both in the wholesale
and retail sectors. 

Buyers
believe that the price of rough diamonds will continue their rise of more than
a year, while there appears to be ample consumer demand to persuade
manufacturers to pay higher rough prices for rough for polishing. 

Highlights
of ADWC July stats:

• Belgian
  polished diamond exports in July rose by 4.16 percent in volume terms from a
  year earlier to 811,035 carats, and jumped 16.8 percent to $1.12 billion.
• The same
  trend is seen for the figures for the first seven months of the year, with
  polished diamond exports climbing 2.8 percent from 2009 to 4.45 million carats,
  there was a 29.2 percent rise in value terms to $6.45 billion. 
• In polished
  diamond imports, Belgian diamantaires bought 584,898 carats in July, an
  increase of 3.5 percent from July 2009, but there was a 21.7 percent rise in
  financial terms to $798.1 million. For the January-July period, polished
  diamond imports increased 2.8 percent from a year earlier to 4.46 million
  carats worth $5.83 billion, a rise of 29.5 percent. 
• In rough
  goods, Belgium exported 11.2 million carats in July, a decline of 2.1 percent,
  worth $1.0 billion, an increase of 17.5 percent. 
• For the
  first seven months of this year, however, the picture was much different, with
  rough exports soaring 60.5 percent to 81.2 million carats worth $6.69 billion,
  a jump of 72.3 percent.
• In rough
  diamond imports, Belgium bought 8.18 million carats of rough goods last month
  worth $690.5 million, a decline of 12.2 percent in volume, but a rise of 10.0
  percent, from July last year.
• In the
  January-July period, rough diamond imports show strong rises in both volume and
  financial terms, with a 43.8 percent increase on 2009 to 68.3 million carats
  worth $5.58 billion, a rise of 70.5 percent. 

JCK