US polished imports rose 3.6% in June to $ 1.619 billion, while the average price of imported stones jumped 26% to $ 2,094 per carat, Rapaport reported. In the meantime, polished exports from the USA in June 2014 jumped by 15.1% to a record $ 2.941 billion, as a result, the import deficit reached a record of $ 1.321 billion, significantly exceeding the deficit of $ 993 million registered a year earlier.
The statistics of trade in diamonds in May and June usually reflect the activity at the JCK show, but since June 2011, polished imports after the fair have shown increasingly high deficits.
US rough diamond imports jumped 80% to $ 36 million in June, while diamond exports fell 48.1% to $ 14 million, thus the net import of diamonds was $ 22 million, compared with a negative figure of $ 7 million for the same month last year.
The net US diamond account for June (the difference between net imports and exports of diamonds and diamonds) was negative at $ 1.299 billion (a record high for a single month).
In the first half of 2014, US polished imports rose 5.3% year-on-year to $ 12.212 billion; diamond exports jumped 13.6% to $ 11.49 billion, indicating a decrease in net polished imports by 51.2% to $ 723 million. Imports of rough diamonds rose 72.6% to $ 366 million, while diamond exports jumped 81, 8% to $ 249 million. Net imports of diamonds increased by 56.8% to $ 116 million, resulting in a net diamond account for the period of $ 839 million compared to $ 1,555 billion in the same period last year.