RAPAPORT... Christie's brought in $5.2 million from its Fine Jewels sale in Paris, with several pieces smashing their presale estimates.A ring by designer Verdura, featuring a rectangular cut-cornered, 5.57-carat Kashmir sapphire and rectangular cut-cornered, H-color, VVS1-clarity diamond weighing 5.53 carats, fetched EUR 274,000 ($310,418), the highest price for a jewelry item. Christie's so...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Police in Angola seized almost 4,500 diamonds and detained a French national as part of its Operation Transparency.It followed a number of tip-offs regarding the alleged clandestine sale and purchase of diamonds at the suspect's home in Lucapa, in the eastern Lunda Norte province, according to the country's official news agency Angola Press. .The country has made rep...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Diamond markets in Surat, India, are due to re-open tomorrow, but have been warned that they'll be closed again if more than 10 people test positive for coronavirus.Factories in the city will be allowed to open for business again on Tuesday after a spike in COVID-19 cases centred on diamond units in the Katargam area. Surat currently has 1,659 active COVID-19 cases and has had...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Alrosa is postponing its next two trading sessions in response to a continuing slump in demand.The Russian state-owned miner sold just $40m of diamonds in May.It has reportedly lost at least five of its long-term buyers, as it maintains its price over volume strategy and forces customers to buy goods deferred from earlier sales.Alrosa is putting back its sale scheduled for July 12-...Read More
RAPAPORT... Israel's diamond industry is on the verge of collapse as the coronavirus has wiped out sales and forced business to stop, the president of the Israel Diamond Exchange said Wednesday in a letter to the government.The pandemic will cost the industry more than NIS 2 billion ($580 million) and lead to companies shutting for more than six months, Yoram Dvash estimated in a plea to Isra...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The "bible" of lab-grown diamonds is being republished to update jewelers, traders and consumers.Authors Dusan Simic and Branko Deljanin have revised existing content and added 50 pages since the last edition of Laboratory Grown Diamonds in 2007 and aim to present complex technical information in an easy-to-understand format.Simic, a research gemologist at New-York based Analytical...Read More
(IDEX Online) - India's ailing diamond industry is calling for a huge cut in the duty charged on its polished exports. It's also requesting "direct" rough purchases to reduce costs, rather than being forced to buy through middlemen in Antwerp, and a package of other measures relating to e-commerce and gold monetization. The Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) says the expo...Read More
RAPAPORT... Birks Group has eliminated a top omni-channel position on its management team as part of a restructuring effort in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.The Canada-based jeweler has let go of Lanita Layton, its vice president and chief omni-channel sales and marketing officer, according to a July 6 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Layton, the former managing d...Read More
RAPAPORT... The September Hong Kong show has been postponed to November due to the coronavirus and related travel restrictions, organizer Informa Markets said Wednesday.Jewellery & Gem World (JGW) Hong Kong, formerly the September Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair, is now due to take place from November 9 to 13, 2020, at AsiaWorld-Expo. It will run at one venue - AsiaWorld-Expo - instead...Read More
RAPAPORT... Signet Jewelers was rated as one of the top 100 retailers on the National Retail Federation's (NRF) 2020 list, which ranks companies based on annual retail sales.The retailer came in at number 98, the only jewelry specialist to make the 2020 list. It regained a place after slipping from the rankings in 2019. In 2018, it nabbed the 81st spot. Meanwhile, Tiffany & Co., which pla...Read More
RAPAPORT... Diamonds Do Good will host a virtual gathering in which key leaders from the diamond and retail sectors will offer insights and perspectives on the future of the natural-diamond industry."The world has undergone a seismic change over the last few months," Diamonds Do Good president Anna Martin said recently. "Learning how global companies in our industry are adapting will bring pe...Read More
RAPAPORT... India's diamond sector has asked the government to reduce import duty for polished and allow direct sales of rough at the country's special notified zones (SNZs), arguing that the measures would boost the local industry.The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) wants import tax to drop to 2.5% from its current rate of 7.5%, thereby strengthening India's role as a hu...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Tiffany & Co have won a $12m legal battle against fake websites claiming to sell their goods.The iconic New York-based jeweler said sites with names like "tiffanyandco.net" and "tiffanyand.cn" imitated its own website and misled consumers. Some redirected traffic from Google to their own site rather the genuine Tiffany website.Twelve defendants were fined $1m each by a federal...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Diamond factories in Surat, India, will remain closed until 14 July at the earliest as the city battles a COVID-19 outbreak centered on its main cutting and polishing zone.There have been 850 confirmed cases of coronavirus among diamond workers and merchants, mostly in the Katargam area.It means world's key diamond manufacturing hub is at a complete standstill.The Surat Munici...Read More
RAPAPORT PRESS RELEASE, July 7, 2020, Las Vegas... The global diamond market was uncertain in June due to the resurgence of Covid-19 and geopolitical tensions. Polished prices firmed for select goods. The RapNet Diamond Index (RAPI?,,?) for 1-carat diamonds rose 1.9% during the month, driven by investment demand for 1-carat to 1.10-carat, D, IF, RapSpec A3+ stones. Prices for lower colors and clar...Read More
RAPAPORT... US consumers still favor purchasing diamond jewelry in a brick-and-mortar shop, but want store owners to provide proper safety measures against the coronavirus, according to a De Beers survey."While consumers increasingly desire a diamond-acquisition journey that blends the digital and physical, when it comes to making purchases, they still prefer the personalization of the in-sto...Read More
RAPAPORT... Surat authorities have extended the shutdown of the Indian city's diamond-manufacturing sector for another week after the number of coronavirus cases grew.While trading markets can reopen this Friday, cutting factories won't be able to restart until July 14, the Surat Municipal Corporation ordered Monday.The industry closed for seven days last week after polishing units increasing...Read More
RAPAPORT... Two companies have expressed interest in acquiring Dominion Diamond Mines, according to an affidavit by its former CEO Brendan Bell.Those parties, who were not named in the June 12 legal filing, have signed non-disclosure agreements that entitle them to review confidential information on Dominion's financials. The process could result in either company making a bid for some or all of t...Read More
RAPAPORT... Surat authorities have extended the shutdown of the Indian city's diamond-manufacturing sector for another week after the number of coronavirus cases grew.While trading markets can reopen this Friday, cutting factories won't be able to restart until July 14, the Surat Municipal Corporation ordered Monday.The industry closed for seven days last week after polishing units increasing...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The IDEX Polished Diamond Price Index was down in June by 0.35 per cent with only negligible changes day-to-day. There were some hopes of a post-COVID recovery in April, when the Index rose by 0.7 per cent, but they seemed to be dashed in May, when the graph showed a virtual straight line, and they have now been followed by month of decline, albeit slight. IDEX Onl...Read More