Japan’s Polished Diamond Imports Dip 12% in March .

Japan’s diamond and jewellery trade saw a dip, affected also due to the earthquake and tsunami causing retailers to curb their businesses for some time. Polished diamond imports dropped 12 percent (y-o-y) to $61 million, and in volume terms by 23 percent to 151,793 carats. The average price of polished diamond imports increased 14 percent (y-o-y) to $402 per carat.

In the month, the country’s gold jewelry imports dipped 20 percent to $49.2 million, while platinum jewelry imports decreased 13 percent to $36.1 million.

At the end of the year’s first quarter, the country’s polished diamond imports increased 5.5 percent to $183.6 million in value terms, while the volume of the said imports were flat at 571,688 carats. The average price of imports rose 6 percent to $321 per carat. Polished diamond imports from India in the quarter increased by 11 percent to $87.2 million, and from Israel rose by 23 percent to $14.6 million. The said imports from Belgium dipped 5 percent to $31.5 million, and from Hong Kong decreased by 18 percent to $15.7 million.

Source : diamondworld.net