RAPAPORT... Hong Kong saw its first quarterly rise in polished-diamond imports for more than two years as global trading picked up following a slump in early 2020. Shipments into the municipality rose 4% year on year to $3.55 billion for the October-to-December period, according to calculations based on data released this week by the Diamond Federation of Hong Kong, China.Hong Kong Trade Data...Read More
RAPAPORT... Petra Diamonds has begun an investigation into new claims of violence at its Williamson mine in Tanzania following a lawsuit last year.The fresh allegations were of assaults and human-rights violations by Tanzanian guards and the miner's security contractor between November 2020 and January 2021, Petra said Wednesday. Many of the incidents required force to defend people and prope...Read More
RAPAPORT... Belgium's polished-diamond exports fell 10% year on year to $547 million in January, with both volume and the average price declining. That followed a positive December, in which shipments jumped 9% to $634 million, according to data the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) released this week. For 2020 as a whole, polished exports dropped 41% to $5.81 billion, as a second-quarter s...Read More
RAPAPORT... Alrosa's sales rose in January as manufacturers continued to restock inventory and consumer demand picked up in China and the US.Diamond revenues climbed 6% year on year to $430 million, with rough sales growing 8% to $421 million, the Russian miner said Wednesday. Polished sales dropped 39% to $9 million. While overall revenue was not as high as the previous month - manufacturers typi...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The GIA lab in Johannesburg has identified three cases of synthetic moissanite being submitted for grading with a fraudulent inscription.It's a new development by unscrupulous dealers trying to pass off simulants as genuine diamonds.The lab says most fakes are easily spotted, but in the first of three cases a colorless 1.02-ct round brilliant gem bore a GIA number correspondin...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Alrosa today reported total rough and polished sales of $430m for January, up six per cent year-on-year.Demand was firming, especially in China and the USA, said the miner, which has allowed zero-buyouts during most of the pandemic.The figure was higher than for any month in 2020 apart from December, when the disposal of accumulated stock and sale of the record-breaking Spiri...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Petra Diamonds has outlined its 10-point plan for change at the Williamson mine, in Tanzania, following claims that its security staff had been "ruthless and militaristic" in their dealings with illegal diggers. It also provided details of some of the 79 recorded incursions onto its site in the three months to the end of January, to indicate the scale of the problem it faces. Petra...Read More
(IDEX Online) - British boxer Amir Khan has bought his son a $40,000 Rolex watch as a first birthday present.The former light-welterweight world boxing champion posted a picture of the boy, Muhammad Zaviyar, on social media, together with one of the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, a timepiece described by its Swiss makers as "the ultimate timing tool for endurance racing drivers".Multi-millionaire...Read More
RAPAPORT... The diamond supply chain will return to pre-pandemic levels between 2022 and 2024, led by economic recoveries in China and the US, according to Bain & Company."For natural diamonds, we saw great interest and return-to-growth trajectory both in the US and China once lockdowns were lifted and stores started to open their doors," Bain partner Olya Linde told Rapaport News. "The growth...Read More
RAPAPORT... Esther Fortunoff's store has been through a lot in the nearly 100 years it's been in business. Her grandparents Max and Clara Fortunoff opened the shop in 1922 as a New York-based housewares store, but it segued to include jewelry in 1957. In 2005, the family sold the majority share in the then-20-store Fortunoff chain to two private-equity firms, which filed for Chapter 11 a few years...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The Gahcho Kue diamond mine in Canada has suspended all operations after six workers tested positive for COVID-19. It follows a separate outbreak involving workers on contractor-operated winter road 25 miles away, although health officials do not believe the two are linked. The 335 workers currently at the mine (pictured), in Northwest Territories, have been confined to t...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Tiffany & Co has reportedly told its 5,000 US workers they must start working two days a week on site, from 1 March.The French luxury conglomerate LVMH, which completed its acquisition of the New York-based jeweler last month, wants to bring it in line with the hybrid working schedule operated at its other interests."It's critical at this time of change that we adopt a hyb...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The sale of Ekati, Canada's first diamond mine, has been completed.Troubled owners Dominion, the world's third biggest supplier of diamonds by carat, sold the mine and associated assets to Arctic Canadian Diamond Company.The new company has been established by DDJ Capital Management and Brigade Capital Management, representing holders of Dominion's second lien notes....Read More
so RAPAPORT... Pandora shuttered approximately 30% of its retail network in January amid a new outbreak of coronavirus cases.Most of the store closures were in Europe, with all its UK shops shut as the country battles a more severe variant of the virus, a spokesperson for the Danish jeweler told Rapaport News Monday. As of December 31, some 10% of global locations were closed.The company's sa...Read More
RAPAPORT... De Beers has suspended all mining and ore processing at its jointly owned Gahcho Ku?(C) mine in Canada after six employees tested positive for Covid-19.The cases, which came to light during proactive testing of all on-site employees, followed two additional cases that the miner confirmed last week, De Beers said Saturday. Another 47 workers who came into contact with the individuals ha...Read More
RAPAPORT... The shop of the future will feature online concierge services and allow customers to buy on the web and collect in-store. Retail will work in a whole new way. Are jewelry retailers prepared for this shift?The key is to listen and respond to what the public wants, according to panelists on the latest episode of Rapaport's podcast series on technology. "The end consumer is saying to...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The global diamond industry proved resilient in 2020, despite a 20 per cent drop in rough production and a fall of 15 per cent in diamond jewelry sales. And it is poised for recovery in 2021.Those are among the key findings of the comprehensive 54-page Tenth Annual Global Diamond Report 2020-2021, published today by the business consultants Bain & Company and the Antwerp World...Read More
RAPAPORT... Increased synthetic-diamond production led to a price drop last year, giving lab-grown a greater share of the fashion-jewelry market, according to Bain & Company.Production of lab-grown diamonds has seen double-digit growth over the past two years, reaching 6 million to 7 million carats in 2020, Bain said Monday in its annual report on the industry conducted in partnershi...Read More
RAPAPORT... Clikia Corp., a specialist in affordable luxury, has acquired a stake in Aether Diamonds, a synthetics producer that claims to grow its stones using carbon dioxide from the air.US-based Clikia bought the "material" interest for $150,000, it said in a statement Thursday. The transaction was part of Aether's $1.5 million funding round.Aether claims to produce the "world's first carb...Read More
RAPAPORT... Group revenue at Watches of Switzerland grew in the third fiscal quarter as increased online sales and domestic spending offset a drop in tourism.Sales rose 6% year on year to GBP 272.6 million ($374.4 million) in the three months ending January 24, the company said last week.Revenue in the UK increased 1.5%, with online sales up 121%. Sales in the US jumped 16%, as the company opened...Read More