Japanese diamond market shows no sign of recovery

According to the data released by Momozawa & Co., Japan’s diamond market remains in the gloom, as polished diamond imports continued their month on month decline in May.

Imports of polished diamonds into Japan were a modest $47.4 million, which actually was 3.3 percent more than the amount reported in May 2009, but 10.9 percent below the figure reported in April 2010. In terms of  volume, however, imports fell 8.6 percent from May 2009 and 5.8 percent from April 2010.
 
India was Japan’s leading supplier of polished diamonds in May, exporting $18.4 million worth of merchandise. It was followed by Belgium with $9.4 million worth of polished exports, and Israel which supplied $5.1 million worth of polished diamonds.
 
China, which a year ago was the Japanese market’s leading supplier of polished diamonds, only registered $1.2 million in sales in may to the country that once was the world’s second largest diamond market.