Waldman Diamond Company

WDC: Israel's first half export results give hope for another record year
July 2000

RAMAT GAN, ISRAEL - Israel's gross polished diamond exports rose to record heights in June, with more than $576 million worth of polished diamond exported from Ramat Gan's diamond trading complex. Commenting upon the situation, Aharon Tamir, the senior sales manager at Waldman Diamond Company (WDC) Group of Israel, said that the impressive results were tempered by the huge returns of polished goods to Israel, bringing the net figure for polished exports down to $325 million in value.

"The amount of goods that were sent out in past May to the JCK Show in Las Vegas was significant. June's high return percentage of polished goods are for the most part represented by the returned-unsold-goods that came back to Israel after the show. That's why in carat terms 41.8 percent came back and in value terms 43.5 percent returned," Tamir stated.

But when looking at the results for polished exports in the first half of 2000, the industry picture seems to remain a glowing one. Net polished exports for the first half of 2000 rose 22.8 percent in weight, to 2.41 million carats compared to the same period in 1999, while in value the rise was even higher, 31.8 percent, to $2.66 billion.

However, Tamir noted that the pace of the industry's sales growth might be slowing down. He pointed out that in June rough imports had dropped to 1.36 million carats, a 6.4 percent decline in weight, but a 2.7 percent gain in value, to $399 million.

"The diamond pipeline can very easily be choked by a too large injection of polished goods into it," Tamir observed. "The industry needs to find a balance between what it can manufacture and/or trade and what it can market effectively—and profitably—to the jewelry consumer market."

During the first half of 2000, rough diamonds imports increased 17.5 percent in weight, when compared to the same period in 1999, reaching 7.9 million carats. In value, the increase was 25.4 percent, reaching $2.27 million.

Exports of rough diamonds rose 48.7 percent in value in the first half, to $774.5 million, but dropped 4.7 percent in carat-weight, to 4.8 million carats. These figures clearly indicate that the value of per carat of rough diamond exports continues to rise strongly.