Rating agency ICRA has revised cut and polished diamond industry outlook from stable to negative, in view of the ongoing lockdown in parts of China and Hong Kong (C&HK) region. China accounts for 14% of polished diamond consumption while a larger proportion (35%) of exports from India is currently routed via Hong Kong. If the business lockdown continues in C&HK, industry pressure will aggravate thereby impacting cash flows. Most CPD companies avail pre-shipment or post shipment credit (export bills discounting of tenor upto 120-150 days) from banks to fund their working capital requirements. In this background, the coronavirus related blow shall continue to restrict lending to the sector over next few months.“Given the aforementioned impacts, ICRA revised the credit outlook on the CPD segment of the Gems and Jewellery industry to ‘negative’.

Source: Economic Times February 20, 2020 08:55 UTC