RAPAPORT... E-commerce spending in the US grew to a record high during the holiday season, driven by a rise in smartphone purchases, according to Adobe Analytics.Revenues rose 13% year on year to $142.5 billion over the November-December period, with consumer purchases on smartphones raking in more than $50 billion in sales for the first time, and accounting for 84% of online sales growth. Ea...Read More

RAPAPORT... Tiffany & Co. has unveiled the location that will serve as its home during the two-year renovation of its New York flagship store.The Tiffany Flagship Next Door, a four-story space on East 57th Street, adjacent to the jeweler's Fifth Avenue store, will take the place of its primary location until late 2021. Tiffany plans to test out periodic installations and exclusive pa...Read More

RAPAPORT... Chow Tai Fook intends to close up to 15 stores in Hong Kong as street protests and a tourism slowdown have hit sales.Leases on more than 40 of the jeweler's 91 retail locations in the municipality are due to expire during the fiscal year starting April 2020, the company said Tuesday. Management will decide which of those leases it will allow to lapse."We will review the store performan...Read More

RAPAPORT... The Rapaport Diamond Podcast ushers in the new year with a review of the holiday season and some bold predictions for 2020. Is this the year of retail refurbishment? Will rough buying become more demand-driven? How is De Beers relating to sightholders going into lab-grown? Will John stick to his fitness regime and Sonia to her goal of being more mindful? And will Billy Porter stea...Read More

RAPAPORT PRESS RELEASE, January 14, 2020, New York... The Rapaport Group has released its Diamond Price Statistics Annual Report for 2019, evaluating the performance of polished-diamond prices. The report provides an in-depth analysis of the past year's trends and compares the price changes within specific diamond categories.Diamond prices fell in 2019 as the trade faced macroeconomic uncertainty...Read More

(IDEX Online) - EyeOnJewels has launched a local online marketplace for jewelry in the US that is standardizing the shopping process. The new service enables consumers to find fine jewelry and watch products from local vetted and certified jewelers without having to search them individually. Using EyeOnJewels, shoppers can add items from different retailers to their cart and pay for them in o...Read More

RAPAPORT... Alrosa's sales increased 11% year on year to $363.8 million in December as demand in the manufacturing sector continued to rebound, the Russian miner said Monday."In December, we observed signs of stabilizing diamond demand that had emerged earlier in the second half of the year amid the gradual restoration of market balance," said Alrosa deputy CEO Evgeny Agureev. The month...Read More

(IDEX Online) - The International Gemological Institute (IGI) has opened a new center in Shanghai. The new office includes classrooms and a lab is located in the Fosun building in the Bund Financial Center. IGI said the center will offer enhanced educational and grading services as well as gemological information. "IGI's Shanghai base will promote mutual understanding between IGI and the...Read More

(IDEX Online) - The Carnegie Institution of Washington is alleging that its patents for growing diamonds are being infringed by some well-known lab-grown makers. The institute has filed lawsuits in New York against six companies, including Pure Grown Diamonds Inc. and IIa Technologies PTE Ltd., reports Bloomberg.The disputes have arisen over the use of Carnegie's chemical vapor deposition (CV...Read More

De Beers Group’s diamond brand, Forevermark, unveiled the first boutique in its Next Generation Retail Concept, located within jewellery department store Caibai, in Beijing, China.The newly renovated 100 m2 boutique breaks away from the traditional across-the-counter service, inviting consumers to discover the world of Forevermark through an immersive, interactive and informative experience,...Read More

Turkish steel producers continued to hold back from the deep-sea scrap markets on the second day of the working week because of the soft rebar market and firm scrap prices, sources said on Tuesday January 14.The country's steel producers went through last week with only one deep-sea cargo bought, when a steel mill in the Marmara region booked a European cargo at an average price of $300 per tonne...Read More

Seaborne iron ore prices strengthened further on Tuesday January 14 amid continued appreciation of the yuan against the dollar and lower shipments from Australia and Brazil. 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $97.03 per tonne, up $1.10 per tonne. 62% Fe Pilbara Blend fines, cfr Qingdao: $96.07 per tonne, up $1.10 per tonne. 62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $97.53 per tonne, up $1.33 per tonne. 58% F...Read More

Seaborne coking coal prices were stable on Tuesday January 14 while trading activity took a breather.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $155.26 per tonne, unchangedPremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $160.87 per tonne, unchangedHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $125.01 per tonne, unchangedHard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $135.76 per tonne, unchanged  ...Read More

Indian steel producer Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) has reopened a major direct reduced iron (DRI) plant to boost its steel output by a further 1.5 million tonnes in the period from April 2020 to March 2021, the firm said on Tuesday January 14. JSPL bucked the general trend of output cuts among India's steel producers in late 2019, the company said in its quarterly results on January 2. Bumper sal...Read More

Artemis all set thanks to unique approachSPONSOREDartemis resourcesChina's unwrought copper imports rose 9.1% in December from the previous month to their highest since March 2016, customs data showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported, with improving industrial activity and dwindling scrap metal supply lifting demand.Imports of copper concentrate came in at 1.928 million tonnes, down 10.6% from Novembe...Read More

Artemis all set thanks to unique approachSPONSOREDartemis resourcesLast year, BHP posted its highest profit in five years and declared its biggest ever dividend payment.Read More

Artemis all set thanks to unique approachSPONSOREDartemis resourcesThe Vancouver-headquartered company said Monday the 2019 production figure came in at the lower end of its annual guidance at 87.2 million pounds of copper-equivalent (Cu-eq), and it expected 2020 output to rise by a third to between 100-113Mlb of Cu-eq.Management expects another production increase in 2021 to 102-115Mlb Cu-eq and...Read More

The three-month nickel price on the London Metal Exchange tumbled 3% during morning trading on Tuesday January 14 after a sell-off of just under $600 brought the price below the $14,000 per tonne psychological support level. The outright nickel price on the LME was recently at $13,720 per tonne, while trading volumes were high over the morning at more than 3,500 lots exchanged as of 9:15am London...Read More

China's hot-rolled coil exporters raised their offers on Tuesday January 14 on a weakening dollar, but thin trading kept domestic prices flat.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,880-3,890 yuan ($562-564) per tonne, unchangedNorthern China (Tangshan): 3,600 yuan per tonne, unchangedA Shanghai-based trader said there was barely any movement in the market with trading activity thinning due to downstr...Read More

De-risking Base metal prices have experienced some sharp rebounds after the risk-off episode sparked by the deadly US airstrike on a top Iranian commander on January 3. The focus now is on the signing of the ‘phase 1’ US-China trade deal this week, which could further de-risk the outlook. Aluminium: High enough for now Aluminium prices have been working steadily higher since their Octobe...Read More