The Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) has thrown its weight behind the prestigious International Film Festival Antwerpen (IFFA) in the latter's quest for additional sponsors for the festival's first edition. The IFFA is scheduled to take place from March 10-15, 2020, various theaters throughout the city and in the Elizabeth Hall, adjacent to Antwerp's Diamond Quarter. Quoti...Read More
An earlier edition of a Diamond Week at the DDC. This week, the Diamond Dealers Club (DDC) of New York, in conjunction with the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), hosted over 50 exhibitors and several hundred buyers at its tenth India Diamond Week on the DDC's state-of-the-art trading floor at the International Gem Tower in Manhattan. The DDC leadership said that wi...Read More
The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) and the Israel Diamond Institute (IDI) drafted and sent a joint letter to Celine Lau, director of Jewellery Fairs at Informa Markets, the firm that runs the Hong Kong Gem & Jewellery Fair that will take place in the second half of September, asking Lau to postpone the show. The joint letter sent b...Read More
Prospecting licences held by dual-listed Botswana Diamonds subsidiary Sunland Minerals have been renewed until September 20, 2021.The licences, which cover just over 500 km2, are located in the Kalahari Desert, west of the Ghaghoo diamond mine.AdvertisementBotswana Diamonds on Thursday confirmed that it had already identified prospective drill-ready targets through intensive work including aeromag...Read More
RAPAPORT... Three major trade bodies have asked the organizer ofthe Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair to delay the show until the political climate in the municipality ismore stable. "Currently 30% to 40% of the exhibitors are demanding tocancel [their] participation regardless of whether the situation improves," theorganizations explained in an appeal sent on Wednesday to Informa Markets, w...Read More
RAPAPORT... Tango Mining has terminated its service agreement to mineand market diamonds from the Moquita project in Angola. The company, in September, signed on to finance the alluvial project, which is located just north of Lucapa's Lulomine. While it did not own a stake in the project, Tango agreed toprovide services to the project's owner, Cooperativa Mineira Do Moquita, inexchange for 60...Read More
RAPAPORT... Swiss watch exports rose in July driven by a rebound in growth in China and the Asia-Pacific market. "Swiss watch exports returned rapidly to growth followingthe downturn in June," the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry reportedTuesday. "Hong Kong remained in the red, but performed significantly betterthan it had in June." Shipments rose 4.3% year on year to CHF 1.9 billion (...Read More
RAPAPORT... Blue Nile has appointed Sean Kell as CEO, ending its searchfor a permanent chief executive, the online jewelry retailer said Tuesday. Hereplaces Eric Anderson, a vice-president at parent company Bain Capital, who filledthe position in the interim since January, following the departure of JasonGoldberger. "As the engagement ring and fine jewelry industries continueto evolve, Sean's...Read More
While there is much talk in the U.S. media about a "retail apocalypse," the NRF published an article, based on a report that was released by IHL Group, named "Retail Renaissance - A Growth Story," pointing out, that [brick-and-mortar] retail stores "are definitely not going away." Quoting the IHL report, the NRF wrote that "for each company closing stores, 5.2 are opening stores. For every segment...Read More
Four U.S. gem and jewelry industry leaders - Phyllis Bergman, Ronnie VanderLinden, Jeff Fischer and Patti Geolat - joined the newly formed Zillion Jewelry Innovation Council as its founding members. These founding members have served on, and in many chaired, U.S. industry boards and organizations such as the Jewelers Board of Trade, American Gem Society, 24 Karat Club of NY, Women's Jewelers...Read More
RAPAPORT... Three major trade bodies have asked the organizer ofthe Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair to delay the show until the political climate stabilizes. "Currently 30% to 40% of the exhibitors are demanding tocancel [their] participation regardless of whether the situation improves," theorganizations explained in an appeal sent on Wednesday to Informa Markets, which runs the show. The...Read More
RAPAPORT... The Jewelers Board of Trade (JBT) has appointed Erich Jacobspresident. He will succeed Richard Weisenfeld, who is retiring. Jacobs joined JBT in 2018 as vice president of informationtechnology, JBT said lastweek. Weisenfeld first became acting presidentin February 2018, following the retirement of Anthony Capuano, and took on the role permanently in May of that year. Jacobs will...Read More
RAPAPORT... Shares in Pandora rose 10% in early trading Tuesday as salesdeclines narrowed in key markets and restructuring efforts led to signs ofrecovery. Global sales fell 2.6% year on year to DKK 4.69 billion($697.2 million) in the second quarter, the Danish charm maker reportedTuesday. Same-store sales - at locations open for more than a year - fell 6% in the US, while sales in China slip...Read More
RAPAPORT... J.C. Penney and Macy's noted strong sales in their jewelrydivisions in the second fiscal quarter, even as overall results were disappointing."Our fine-jewelry business continues to deliver strong salesresults," J.C. Penney chief financialofficer Bill Wafford said last week on an analyst call transcribed by SeekingAlpha. Comparative-store sales for the division increased, he added....Read More
RAPAPORT... Sotheby's has collaborated with Chinese jewelry designer Anna Hu on a five-piece collection featuring a 100-carat, fancy-intense-yellowdiamond necklace. Hu's Silk Road Music Collection will go under the hammer atthe October Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite auction in Hong Kong, with theDunhuang Pipa piece leading the sale. Inspired by the image of a lady playingthe pipa -a four-stri...Read More
RAPAPORT... Alrosa has reduced its sales forecast for this year in light of sluggish rough demand in the second quarter.The company expects to sell between 32 million and 33 million carats of rough diamonds for 2019, compared to its previous plan of 38 million carats, it said Monday."The diamond market continued to be affected by a number of negative factors [in the second quarter] that had f...Read More
From left: Michael Goren, VP Global Sales & Marketing at Sarine; Mehul Shah, VP BDB; Ramniklal Shah, Founder of Venus Jewel; Ms Rajeshwari Mehta, VP Business Development at Sarin India; and Yoav Efrat, Managing Director at Sarin India Sarine Technologies Ltd. launched its Sarine Lab Services on August 12th with a grand opening event at the Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB). Established on th...Read More
The Plumb Club announced it had completed analyzing attendance statistics for its brand-new pavilion at this year's JCK Las Vegas Show. While an increase was expected, the results were record breaking. Based on badge scans of attendees entering The Plumb Club Pavilion Caf?? (C) throughout the show, total retailer visits were up 46 percent year on year. "The numbers far surpassed what we had...Read More
During Q2 of 2019, Lucara's revenue totaled $42.5 million, realizing $417 per carat. This constitutes a drop of 35 percent compared to $64.5 million realized in the second quarter of 2018, when the price per carat sold stood at $856 per carat. Lucara stated the sales figures were consistent with its management's expectations and plans. "A strong operating environment prevailed at the Ka...Read More
Macauhub reported that the Angolan state diamond trading company Sodiam reported a gross revenue of $232.8 million in the second quarter of 2019. The company said it had sold 1.5 million carats at an average price of $ 155.3 per carat. Sodiam's revenue dropped to $135.8 million in the second quarter compared to the first quarter, because Sociedade Mineira do Catoca, the largest Angolan produc...Read More