Gems & jewellery exports continued to face headwinds with June shipments plunging 16.26 percent due to the renewed bout of US-China trade wars. Exports of gems & jewellery dipped 16.26 percent to USD 2.82 billion in June from USD 3.37 billion in June 2018, according to the data from the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council released Monday.

The continuing trade wars between the world's two largest economies have subdued Chinese demand, which is the second largest market for the country's cut and polished diamonds, council vice-chairman Colin Shah said. American president Donald Trump has renewed his threats to slap more duties on Chinese imports and the bilateral talks have not made much headway so far, creating more poor sentiment in the market. He added that the issue has also led to slowing demand from the US which otherwise has been steady.

"The US-China trade wars have impacted demand for loose diamonds from China," he said. Adding to the crisis were the lingering domestic issues, which was mostly policy-created as high Customs duty, GST, and the liquidity crisis that began with the Nirav Modi- Mehul Choski scam. "Lack of stocks have also affected manufacturing, impacting exports," he added.

On a quarterly basis, exports declined 10.38 percent to USD 9.18 billion in the April-June period compared to USD 10.25 billion during the same period last year. Gold jewellery exports declined 15.41 percent to USD 913.88 million from USD 1.08 billion in June 2018 while during the first quarter, the same dipped 6.22 percent to USD 3.03 billion from USD 3.23 billion. Cut and polished diamond exports declined 19.38 percent to USD 1.68 billion from USD 2.08 billion in June, while the same plunged 17.33 percent to USD 5.20 billion in the June quarter from USD 6.29 billion.