RAPAPORT... After a year and a half as head of the Natural Diamond Council (NDC), most in the industry know David Kellie via Zoom, with the soothing cream-grey surroundings of his study in the background. Covid-19 prevented any formal, in-person introductions that may have been made, for example, when the organization rebranded in June last year.Perhaps that pandemic-enforced isolation afford...Read More
Strong US market driving short-term confidence. Polished prices continue upward momentum with good demand and supply shortages. High rough prices supporting polished discounts following June hikes at Alrosa and De Beers. The trade expects 3Q seasonal lull but remains optimistic for holiday season. Dealers cautious about buying at current levels. US jewelers working with less inventory amid store c...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Pandora's boss insists he won't cheapen diamonds, after the announcement in May that it would only use lab growns. The Danish company which sold $3bn of "affordable luxuries" last year has now launched its Brilliance collection of rings, bangles, necklaces and earrings featuring lab growns of up to 1.00-ct. But CEO Alexander Lacik says in an interview with the Bloomberg f...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Jewelers for Children is to hold its fourth annual JFC Day to raise funds for kids suffering illness, abuse or neglect.It's urging suppliers, retailers and consumers across the USA to organize their own local fundraising events 25 September.Jewelers for Children was founded in 1999 by the US jewelry industry and has so far donated over $57m to good causes.It has been grow...Read More
RAPAPORT... Pandora has hired Luciano Rodembusch as general manager of its North American operations. He will succeed Sid Keswani, who left the company in April.Rodembusch, who will report to chief commercial officer Martino Pessina, made the leap to Pandora from Tiffany & Co., where he was most recently senior vice president of the Americas, the charm maker said Tuesday. Prior to his nearly 1...Read More
RAPAPORT... Hard-luxury sales in Hong Kong showed only a limited recovery in May as Chinese consumers continued to stay away from the important tourist destination.Revenue from jewelry, watches, clocks and valuable gifts grew 55% year on year to HKD 3.11 billion ($400.3 million), but was still 53% lower than in the same month of 2019, the municipality's Census and Statistics Department report...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Diamond-producing countries will suffer a consumer backlash unless they can prove their output is responsibly sourced, warned Edward Asscher (pictured), president of the World Diamond Council (WDC).He said some sectors of the industry believed the Kimberley Process restricted trade, rather than enabling it. The result, he said, could soon be a "marketplace with two diamond val...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Plans by the USA to impose a retaliatory tariff of up to 25 per cent would have an "immense impact" on jewelry exports from India, says industry boss Colin Shah.He says jobs would be lost as a result, and business would shift from India to China and Mexico.The United States Trade Representative (USTR) is targeting India and five other countries for taxing foreign internet-based com...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A woman farm laborer found a 4.5-ct diamond, thanks to torrential rains in India.She was planting tomato seeds when she chanced upon the gem in the Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh state on Sunday, according to local media reports.The first rains of the season wash away a layer of clay, attracting crowds hunting for newly-exposed diamonds that were lying just below the surface.Th...Read More
RAPAPORT... Sotheby's and Christie's will open "pop-up" exhibitions in Monaco during the summer that will offer clients an assortment of luxury goods.The new private sales gallery from Sotheby's - its first in Europe - will be open from July until October, featuring a constantly rotating assortment of items, the company said last week. Art will be the main focus, appearing alongside other luxury p...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Everyone knows that diamond is the world's strongest material. Well, not quite everyone. Researchers at Washington State University, USA, say lonsdaleite, is actually stronger.Lonsdaleite, also called hexagonal diamond, occurs as microscopic crystals associated with ordinary diamond and can be created, to some extent, now be created in the lab.It was first identified in 1...Read More
RAPAPORT... Opsydia, a diamond security company, has appointed De Beers veteran Jonathan Kendall as a non-executive director.As a board member, Kendall will contribute to Opsydia's international strategy and will serve as an "advocate" for its products, the UK-based business said Tuesday. He will also advise the company on matters related to regulatory and industry bodies in the diamond secto...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A pet parrot underwent emergency surgery after swallowing its owners diamond necklace.Vets recovered 21 gems, each weighing 0.2-cts from the bird's stomach. It had pecked them one by one from the necklace.The parrot, an eight-month-old sun parakeet from Bangkok, Thailand, called Frosty, was attracted to the glitter of the diamonds in the owner's jewelry box.The owner real...Read More
RAPAPORT... Burgundy Diamond Mines will open a cutting and polishing facility in Australia to manufacture colored diamonds from its Ellendale project, as well as those of third-party suppliers.The new factory will also include grading facilities, Burgundy said Tuesday. The miner, which bought the joint Ellendale and Blina deposits in Australia from Gibb River in March, plans to launch a focused br...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Burgundy is to set up its own cutting and polishing facility for yellow diamonds recovered from its newly-acquired Ellendale Mine, in Australia.The factory will also be used for gems from its Naujaat project in Canada, where bulk sampling for fancy yellow to orange yellow diamonds is about to start.And the company says it will offer manufacturing services to third parties.Ellendale...Read More
RAPAPORT... The Natural Diamond Council (NDC) has signed actress Ana de Armas to be its global ambassador for the second consecutive year as it prepares for the September launch of its next advertising campaign. In the NDC ads, De Armas - who stars in the upcoming bond film No Time to Die and plays Marilyn Monroe in Netflix's soon-to-be-released biopic Blonde - will spotlight an 11-piece collectio...Read More
RAPAPORT... An auction of special rough by Angola's state-owned diamond trader garnered $56.6 million, led by the sale of seven diamonds from Lucapa's Lulo mine.The National Diamond Trading Company, known as Sodiam, also offered rough from Alrosa's Catoca and Luele mines at its third tender in Luanda, which ran from June 9 to 23, it said last week. In addition, the sale included special stones fro...Read More
RAPAPORT... Sales slid at Hong Kong-based Luk Fook in the past fiscal year as the Covid-19 pandemic devastated the tourism industry in the jewelry retailer's home territory.Group revenue dropped 21% to HKD 8.86 billion ($1.14 billion) for the 12 months that ended March 31, the company reported Thursday. Sales in Hong Kong tumbled 46% to HKD 2.41 billion ($310.4 million), outweighing an improv...Read More
RAPAPORT... A pair of diamond earrings by Harry Winston was the top-selling item at a Phillips auction in New York, bringing in $390,600.Created in 1957, the earrings contain two pear-shaped diamonds weighing 5.27 and 5.76 carats, as well as two marquise-cut diamonds. The price fell just shy of its $400,000 upper estimate at the June 25 auction, which fetched a total of $3.8 million, Phillips said...Read More
RAPAPORT... Alrosa lifted prices at its latest monthly contract sale as the rough market continued to see strong demand and limited supply."The increase was mainly in 4-grainers and above, and also more in the medium- to better-quality goods," an Alrosa customer told Rapaport News Monday. "There...the increase was [around] 4% to 5%. But [for] minus-4-grainers, [there was] almost no increase,...Read More