U.S. polished diamond imports rose 19 percent to $1.47 billion during the month of September 2010, while polished exports rose by the same percentage to $1.24 billion. Net polished imports for September rose 20 percent to $230 million.

Rough diamond imports fell 23 percent to $17 million and rough exports declined 52 percent to $26 million, leaving the U.S. with a rough deficit of $9 million compared with net rough imports of $5 million in September 2009.  Given these figures, net polished and rough imports for the U.S. in September rose 13 percent to $221 million.

Polished imports for the first nine months of 2010 rose 52 percent to $13.3 billion and polished exports rose 48 percent to $10.2 billion. The U.S. net polished diamond import total rose 64 percent to $3 billion. Rough imports rose 82 percent to $350 million and rough exports rose by 50 percent to $206 million, leaving the U.S. with net rough imports of $144 million, an increase of 162 percent.  The net import of polished and rough diamonds for the first nine months rose 67 percent to $3.18 billion.

Cached news credit is given to Rapaport by DiamondTopics.com News.