The Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) says media reports out of India that some diamantaires are selling polished goods at discounts of 5-20 percent due to financing issues as a result of the closure of the Antwerp Diamond Bank (ADB) are incorrect. The GJEPC said the reports were "false and baseless".
The GJEPC said the winding down of the ADB did not have "any immediate direct impact on the trade, neither has it created an overnight liquidity crunch as stated in the news reports. Any international bank, while closing down, provides an adequate time period for their clients for repayment of loans and does not demand an overnight settlement".
"In the case of ADB, it provides a minimum period of one year to its clients in India and similar if not more to clients in Antwerp and other centers which is adequate for the trade, and gives no reason to emerge in a havoc scenario as wrongly stated."
The GJEPC described the mood in the country's diamond jewelry industry as "upbeat" with the holiday season coming up. The holiday events include Diwali and the Indian wedding season, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
India buys diamonds worth $2 billion every year and its exports of cut and polished diamonds in 2013-14 were $19.6 billion. "With US markets on the rebound and European markets steadying up after some turbulent times, there are no circumstances that the trade has ever offered a discount of even 5-10 percent in the past, neither is it expected to offer such a steep drop in prices in the near future or resort to any distress selling, as there is currently no reason" the GJEPC said.
GJEPC Chairman Vipul Shah, commented, “The long term fundamentals of the diamond industry remain strong and robust as there are no new major finds and the sales of diamonds are growing in the emerging markets of China and India."
He added that prices of rough diamonds supplied by De Beers have gone up by 3-5 percent, while Russian goods have seen an increase of 2-5 percent recently.