Waldman Diamond Company

WDC: Israel's polished exports decline in April, but a 30-percent growth forecast for 2000
April 2000

RAMAT GAN, ISRAEL - Israel's polished diamond exports declined close to 10 percent in value in April to $287 million, compared to $316 million in the same month of 1999. However, for the January-April period, exports were still 30 percent higher in value than in 1999, and now stand at $1.76 billion, compared to $1.35 billion in the first four months of the previous year.

In contrast, in the other three categories reported by the Diamond Controller's office of the Ministry of Industry and Trade the statistics were surprisingly positive.

In April, imports of rough diamond increased a staggering 111 percent, from $130 million in April 1999 to $275 million. During the first four months of the year, more than $1.4 billion worth of rough diamond was imported into Israel, an increase of 35 percent over the same period in 1999. Industry analysts believe that the total growth for 2000 will be around 30 percent.

Imports of polished diamond also kept their high pace of growth, rising 80 percent in April, to $160 million, and 64 percent over the first four months, to $595 million.

Israel's rough exports continued to grow rapidly as well. In April, 733,000 carats were exported, a 30 percent increase, at a value of $105 million, representing a 60 percent increase.

Commenting, Simeon Lee Loon, a senior marketing manager of WDC Group, an international diamond manufacturing and trading company that is one of Israel's major exporters, pointed out that while the overall situation of the Israel diamond industry seems to be excellent, diamantaires need to remain very watchful of market developments.

"The lower export figure for April is not really significant as Passover cancelled out many business days during the month. But the United States continue to account for the lion's share of Israeli exports, taking some 65 percent of the total goods exported. Many have said it before, and I'll repeat it again: for a manufacturer or dealer, it's always risky to put one's eggs in a single basket, especially when that basket's larger part is made up of sales on credit," Loon warned.

"Recently, we've seen the stock market behaving quite erratically. A lot of the money we're after—as sellers of a luxury product—is tied up in the stock market. We'll need to remain very watchful of the developments," he added.

Loon noted that companies can and should try to protect themselves from that risk by diversifying their business activities. "WDC has diversified its operation in various ways and on various levels. First, we've increased our activities in Europe, as well as in the Far Eastern markets, in spite of the slow recovery process underway there. Secondly, we've intensified our vertical integrative activities. We're more aggressively finding our way to direct rough diamond suppliers, while at the same time stepping up the business activity of Waldman Diamonds Complete, our finished jewelry division in New York. Therefore, at the JCK show in Las Vegas, we'll be introducing a new line of diamond jewelry, called "Basics with a Twist."