India stepped up rough diamond imports in July. The country's gross imports totaled $1.89 billion during the month, double (99.3%) the value of imports a year ago and up 18.6 percent compared to June, based on figures released by the GJEPC.

 

Gross imports by volume jumped 19 percent from July 2010 to 15.9 million carats. Compared to June, this is a 16.9 percent increase.

Exports of rough diamonds in July totaled $124.85 million on shipments of 2.8 million carats, rising year-over-year by 95.5 percent by value and 21.5 percent by volume.

The continued increase in July was fueled by a large supply of goods from producers, mainly De Beers and Alrosa, and a sharp increase in prices by the two suppliers, estimated at 10 percent and 20-25 percent respectively.