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Israel's Polished Exports +1% to $6B in 2014
Jan 5, 2015 11:13 AM
By Ronen Shnidman
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RAPAPORT... Israel’s polished diamond exports, excluding returns, rose 1 percent year on year to $6.27 billion in 2014, according to a press statement issued by the Economy Ministry on Monday.
Similarly, polished imports, excluding returns, grew 5 percent to $4.51 billion during the year, resulting in net polished exports falling 9 percent year on year to $1.76 billion.
Rough diamond imports grew 1 percent to $4.02 billion during the year, while rough exports increased 4 percent to $3.06 billion. Consequently, net rough imports to Israel declined 9 percent to $961 million.
Israel’s net diamond account, representing the difference between total diamond exports and imports, dropped 9 percent to $794 million.
“The world diamond industry faced major challenges in 2014, including a significant credit crunch, high rough prices and low profitability. In Israel moreover the security situation during Operation Protective Edge caused a certain loss of business,” said Moti Ganz, the chairman of the Israel Diamond Institute Group of Companies.
Ganz added that he was confident that the Israeli diamond industry would show continued growth in 2015. He noted that with the robust U.S. market and renewed Asian demand, he looked forward to increased trade for polished diamonds in 2015.
Among geographic regions, the U.S. continued to be the major market for Israel’s polished diamonds according to Economy Ministry figures, accounting for 38 percent of polished exports. Hong Kong was the next largest market, receiving 30 percent of Israel’s polished exports.
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Tags:
Ganz, Israel, Liquidity, Ronen Shnidman, trade data
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