Diamond Blog by MID House of Diamonds

Economic Fallout Threatens Africa’s Informal Diamond Mines

While the COVID-19 is certainly a threat to the artisanal diamond mining communities in African, the economic effects could outweigh the health effects, reports the World Diamond Council (WDC) in its latest newsletter.

New Study: 80% of World Diamond Reserves Held by 3 Countries

Just as the jewelry industry appears to be consolidating, so does the rough diamond business, at least geographically, states Learn Bonds, a London-based financial publication serving the investment market. But, while the study has been quite widely quoted in the trade, it does appear to include certain blind spots and quite a few possible inaccuracies.

High-Value Jewelry Sales Surge Online, Auctions Eye Major Shift

There are many business sectors that are likely to be inexorably changed once the COVID-19 crisis comes to an end. One of the them is auction houses, which have quickly pivoted to online sales, with a degree of some success.

Online Sales Soar, But Retail Faces Biggest Challenges

In many respects, retail has shifted to an experiential model, whereby store functionality –which refers to the basic act of locating, selecting and buying the product – takes second place to the experience that the customer goes through from the moment he or she has engaged with the business, which is then reinforced by the experience of owning the product.

A luxury shopping mall for brands like Cartier and Louis Vuitton

6 Key Luxury Trends to Watch in Post-COVID Recovery

2020 will be a year that the luxury markets would prefer to forget, write Jean-Noël Kapferer and Jean Revis in a recent edition of the respected Business of Fashion journal. However, it is not a question of if the luxury markets will recover from the COVID-19 crisis, but rather of when. But when they do, they will be greatly changed.

Calls for Rough Diamond Import Ban as India Reopens

The giant Indian cutting industry will play a key role in the recovery of the diamond sector from the extended global lockdown that had been instituted as a result of the COVID-19 coronavirus. But with the pipeline already clogged with excess rough supply before the start of the crisis, calls are growing for a temporary moratorium on rough diamond purchases, even after cutting plants resume activities, so as restore a sense of balance in the market.

Diamond Industry Looks to Future as Economies Reopen

On December 31, the municipal health commission in Wuhan, China, reported a cluster of unusual pneumonia cases in the city, and six days later the World Health Organization issued a disease outbreak report. This was soon identified by genetic sequencing as a novel coronavirus and evidence indicated it was highly transmissible.

Indian Diamond Industry in Lockdown: Mining Companies Adapt

With many of the world’s major diamond markets in lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, mining companies are feeling the heat. Among the latest to reveal this predicament is the De Beers Group, whose parent company, Anglo America, revealed that it has cut its production forecast sharply for 2020, from what it previous had been planned.

Diamond Trade Presidency Returns to Ramat Gan

History was made on April 20 – quietly in the turmoil of the ongoing CIVID-19 pandemic – when the presidency of the diamond trade’s premier representative organization, the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB), returned into Israeli hands.

Luxury Brands Optimistic About Post-COVID Silver Lining

At the end of March, the consulting firm Boston Consulting Group is revised down its earlier negative forecast on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on luxury sales. Brands, it stated, should prepare for a decline in sales of between $85 and $120 billion in 2020, equal to about 29.2 percent of the $350 billion luxury market.

China’s Recovery Offers Hints for Global Diamond Market

As governments begin considering an exit strategy from the COVID-19 shutdown, members of the luxury sector are looking to China, where the epidemic first began but over the past month has being reopening for business.

Diamond and Luxury Firms Step Up in Fight Against COVID-19

With the worldwide battle to contain and defeat the COVID-19 coronavirus in full swing, the diamond, jewelry and luxury industries are stepping up their efforts to support public health and the medical teams out in the field, and well as dealing with the economic fallout from the pandemic.

THE SWEET SMELL OF THE LESEDI LA RONA

During these days of pandemic and social distancing, a lighter but a more uplifting story is sorely needed, and especially one that is sweet, or to be more precise sweet smelling.

Time to Consider Post-COVID World as Markets Stay in Crisis

It may seem early to some, but the time has arrived to beginning thinking about the world after the COVID coronavirus virus. Whether that is a matter of months or more than a year away, most analysts agree that the effects will be substantial, and often in ways that are unexpected. The diamond business will not be excluded.

Belgium Slowly Emerges from COVID-19 Lockdown

Belgium is one of the countries that took a devastating blow from the COVID-19 pandemic. With more than 51,000 infections reported, the country’s the more than 8,400 people that lost their life made its per capita death toll the highest among all developed countries. In its efforts to prevent the spread of the disease, the government put much of the country into lockdown, and effectively shut down the economy. Two months later, it and its diamond industry are slowly returning beginning their return to normality.

Rapaport Halts Diamond Price List Amid COVID Fallout

As the COVID-19 coronavirus spreads further in countries around the world, the ripple effect of the pandemic continues to upend the business sector, with the diamond industry being no exception. A case in point is that, for the first time in 42 years, the Rapaport Group has announced it was suspending publication of its weekly price list for more than one month, until May 1.

Ancient Baffin Island Diamonds Reveal Earth’s Evolution Secrets

Diamond deposits extracted from an exploration project on Baffin Island, which is part of the Canadian territory of Nunavut, and is the country’s largest water-bound landmass and the fifth-largest island in the world, has led geologists to a startling conclusion.

Diamond Miners Seek Solutions Amid Travel Restrictions

With international air travel reduced to a bare minimum as a result of the COVID-19 coronavirus, and an increasing number of countries allowing entry only to citizens and other legal residents, rough diamond mining companies are being forced to consider new alternative operating procedures in a sector where typically buyers have traveled in to examine good visually before purchasing them.

Israeli Diamond Center Eases Rules to Keep Trade Moving

As the Israeli government ramps up restrictions on the public and the business sector, as part of its efforts to mitigate the spread of the CODID-19 coronavirus, the country’s diamond industry is scrambling to adjust to the new situation.

Russian Diamond Sales Drop in 2019, 2020 Uncertain

Alrosa, state-controlled Russian diamond mining company that is the world’s largest producer of rough diamond, has reported that revenues in 2019 fell 21 percent drop in rubles to RUB 238 billion ($3.32 billion). The company cited “weaker demand in the rough and polished diamonds market.”

De Beers Cuts Rough Supply Amid Coronavirus Crisis

The COVID-19 coronavirus continues to make it presence felt on the diamond and jewelry markets, with De Beers citing the worldwide epidemic as a primary reason for its cutting the size of rough diamond allocation in February, which was 36 percent down on the amount reported just one month earlier.

Scientists Study Diamonds Formed from Fossil Fuels

Diamonds, as we are discovering, are valued for much more than their physical beauty. Their physical properties are highly sought out by industry, medicine, industry, quantum computing technologies and biological sensing. No wonder then that they are gaining ever increasing attention in the scientific community.

COVID-19 Likely a Watershed Moment, Like 1991 Gulf War

To possibly understand what long-term impact the current coronavirus could have on the diamond business, it may be useful to consider a lesson from past industry history. It dates back to the months leading up and after the First Gulf War in 1991.

Russia Pushes to Lift Conflict Diamond Restrictions

According to Kimberley Process (KP) rules, there is only current source of goods in the market that can be qualified as conflict diamonds, and those are rough goods being mined by artisanal miners in the Central African Republic (CAR).

DE BEERS REPORTS DISAPPOINTING EARNINGS FOR 2019

De Beers reported its earnings for 2019, which are at the lowest ebb since a majority shareholding in the company was purchased by the miner Anglo American Corporation bought it in 2012.

SEARCH

BY CERTIFICATION

DISCOVER OUR DIAMONDS

sourcing

more trade shows

GLIMPSE FROM our trade SHOWs…

JCK 2019 LAS VEGAS SHOW

HK SEPTEMBER SHOW

HK NOV SHOW

HK MARCH SHOW

FROM OUR BLOG

RECENT

FOCUS