RAPAPORT... De Beers' rough-diamond sales declined 28% year on year to $355 million in February as the coronavirus hit demand.Many sightholders took up the miner's offer to delay buying goods destined for China, sources in the rough market told Rapaport News. The company let clients reject certain 1- to 2-carat rough diamonds and reschedule those purchases for later in the year.The coronaviru...Read More
RAPAPORT... Gem Diamonds has recovered a white diamond weighing 114 carats at its Let??eng mine in Lesotho, the second stone over 100 carats the miner has found this year, it said Tuesday.The company unearthed the "high-quality" D-color stone on Monday. The discovery follows that of a 183-carat, white, type IIa diamond last month. Berenberg investment bank estimated that stone would fetch in...Read More
RAPAPORT... Group revenue at Watches of Switzerland increased in the third fiscal quarter amid strong holiday sales in the UK and US markets.Sales rose 13% year on year to GBP 257.9 million ($329.8 million) in the three months ending January 26, as several brands showed double-digit growth, the company said last week. Like-for-like sales increased 7% during the period, with UK online sales gr...Read More
RAPAPORT... Botswana's economic growth slowed last year due to lower rough production, further aggravated by weakness in its diamond-manufacturing sector, the nation's central bank said last week.Gross domestic product (GDP) increased 3.7% in the 12 months to September 2019, compared with a 5% rise in the previous year. The main factor was sluggish diamond-mining output, which increased 2.1%,...Read More
RAPAPORT... The JCK Las Vegas and Luxury shows will take place as planned, their organizer has confirmed, allaying fears the coronavirus would jeopardize the events."At this time of global concern, Reed Exhibitions and Reed Jewelry Group are closely monitoring developments related to the COVID-19 virus," said Sarin Bachmann, Reed Jewelry Group's vice president for the shows, in a statement Tu...Read More
Diamond miner De Beers earned $355-million from the sale of rough diamonds in its second sales cycle of this year.CEO Bruce Cleaver on Wednesday noted that, in response to improved demand for rough diamonds during the first sales cycle, the company, recognised the impact of the Covid-19, or coronavirus, outbreak on customers focused on supplying the Chinese market and put in place additional targe...Read More
(IDEX Online) - JCK Las Vegas, the biggest jewelry show in North America, is to go ahead as scheduled, say organizers.The announcement follows a series of cancelations in Hong Kong because of coronavirus, and the news last week that Baselword will not take place this year.JCK Las Vegas attracts over 30,000 of the world's most influential industry professionals, almost a quarter of them from o...Read More
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Diamond miner Lucapa Diamond Company will raise some A$2.8-million in a share placement to sophisticated and professional investors to advance exploration work at its Lulo kimberlite project, in Angola.The company on Wednesday said that it would issue more than 25.8-million shares, at a price of 11c each, under its existing placement capacity.AdvertisementThe issue...Read More
(IDEX Online) - De Beers has blamed coronavirus for a significant drop in sales of rough diamonds at its latest sight, held in Botswana last week. The provisional figure for Cycle 2 is $355m, down from $551m at January's sight (Cycle 1) and the lowest since Cycle 8 of last year. The company allowed a number of deferrals from sightholders, especially for smaller stones, under 1-carat, that wou...Read More
(IDEX Online ) - Alrosa has launched a website for its new Luminous Diamond brand, as it seeks a new market for the lower-value fluorescent stones.The Russian state-owned diamond mining company says the first jewelry pieces will be available for sale later this year, although no date has been fixed.It describes them on its website as having "inner light".Fluorescent diamonds lose 15 to 35 per cent...Read More
RAPAPORT... Botswana's economic growth slowed last year due to lower rough production, further aggravated by weakness in its diamond-manufacturing sector, the nation's central bank said last week.Gross domestic product (GDP) increased 3.7% in the 12 months to September 2019, compared with a 5% rise in the previous year. The main factor was sluggish diamond-mining output, which increased 2.1%,...Read More
RAPAPORT... Sales of jewelry and other luxury items in Hong Kong fell for the 12th consecutive month in January amid a sharp downturn in tourism and an early Lunar New Year. Revenue from jewelry, watches, clocks and other valuable gifts slid 42% year on year to HKD 4.92 billion ($632.2 million) during the month, the municipality's Census and Statistics Department reported last week. Sales acr...Read More
RAPAPORT... Jewelry was among the best-performing categories at Macy's during the fourth fiscal quarter, even as overall sales declined at the department-store chain.Group revenue dropped 1.4% year on year to $8.34 billion in the three months ending February 1, while comparable-store sales - at owned and licensed shops open for at least a year - fell 0.5%, the retailer reported last week. How...Read More
RAPAPORT... The Women's Jewelry Association (WJA) has launched a new consumer-marketing campaign aimed at empowering women to buy jewelry for themselves.March is Me Month will coincide with International Women's Day, which takes place on March 8, as well as Women's History Month. The goal of the campaign is to get women to buy themselves a piece of fine jewelry during the month, no matter the...Read More
The World Diamond Council (WDC) strongly endorses the regional approach taken by the Mano River Union (MRU), in West Africa, to reinforce the effectiveness of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS).The MRU held a three-day workshop in Sierra Leone last week to discuss a programme designed to enhance the implementation of the KPCS.AdvertisementDuring the meeting, WDC executive director E...Read More
(IDEX Online) - US consumers are staying home, as experts warn the coronavirus could lead to a "retail apocalypse". Malls are braced for a sharp decline in footfall, with 58 per cent of consumers saying they're likely to avoid public areas such as shopping centers and entertainment venues if the outbreak worsens, according to the research and advisory firm Coresight Research. Its survey of al...Read More
RAPAPORT PRESS RELEASE, March 3, 2020, Las Vegas... Diamond trading declined sharply in February due to economic uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus. Manufacturers and dealers are facing a severe liquidity crunch as sales to China and Hong Kong have stopped.Diamond prices dropped as a result of the slowdown, with the RapNet Diamond Index (RAPI?,,?) for 1-carat diamonds down 1.6% in February. R...Read More
RAPAPORT... Edward Asscher has retired as president of Royal Asscher, marking his 50th anniversary with the family-run jeweler. His daughter, Lita Asscher and son, Mike Asscher, will take his place as copresidents of the company.The fifth generation of his family to work at the company, Asscher joined the business in 1970, apprenticing with his father and uncle. In 1980 he became president, a...Read More
RAPAPORT... Sales of jewelry and other luxury items in Hong Kong fell for the 12th consecutive month in January amid a sharp downturn in tourism and an early Lunar New Year. Revenue from jewelry, watches, clocks and other valuable gifts slid 42% year on year to HKD 4.92 billion ($632.2 million) during the month, the municipality's Census and Statistics Department reported last week. Sales acr...Read More
RAPAPORT... Belgium's polished exports dropped 22% year on year in January, with volumes and average price both falling. Outbound shipments have declined for nine consecutive months, according to Rapaport archives based on data from the Antwerp World Diamond Centre.However, rough imports showed their first monthly increase since December 2018, as post-holiday restocking was stronger than a ye...Read More