Discover
A report in the Indian media published September 2, 2020, confirmed by a source at the Bharat Diamond Bourse in Mumbai, was enlightening. It concerned what was said to be “a large number of Indian diamond traders,” who had been arrested in mainland China for allegedly smuggling in polished diamonds. Their reason for doing so was to avoid paying a 6 percent import tax levied by the Chinese government on diamonds brought into the country.
Since the start of the coronavirus epidemic during the first quarter of the year, the world’s two largest rough diamond suppliers, De Beers and Alrosa, have consistently resisted calls to reduce the price of rough diamonds. At the same time, both companies relaxed rules governing their customers, allowing then to cherry-pick and even refuse merchandise offered during the regular sales cycles.
Since the start of the coronavirus epidemic during the first quarter of the year, the world’s two largest rough diamond suppliers, De Beers and Alrosa, have consistently resisted calls to reduce the price of rough diamonds. At the same time, both companies relaxed rules governing their customers, allowing then to cherry-pick and even refuse merchandise offered during the regular sales cycles.
The Letšeng Mine in the mountainous southern African Kingdom of Lesotho has produced another massive diamond, with its owner, Gem Diamonds, announcing that a 442-carat stone was recently recovered at the site.
One of the world’s most recognizable jewelry brands, Tiffany & Co., has announced that it will be making diamond traceability a central component of it marketing strategy, by mapping out for customers the journey taken by any polished stone larger than 0.18 carats, from the mine through to the retail store.
As the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic passes the half-year mark, there at last appear to a be growing number of signs that the markets, while still depressed, could make a modest recovery toward the end of the year.
De Beers’ latest Diamond Insight Global Sentiment Report indicates that that consumer desire for diamonds remains strong in the United States, China and India, and that sentiment to purchase diamonds is improving as consumers adjust to the “new normal.”
Despite the dramatic global slowdown in rough diamond supply, work continues at mines owned by Alrosa, the state-controlled Russian producer, which has just announced the discovery of a 236-carat intense fancy yellow colored diamond at the Ebelyakh mine, in the north of Yakutia, the autonomous area in Siberia where most of the country’s deposits are located.
There are few enterprises in the international jewelry industry that have been as severely impacted by the COVID-19 crisis as have been the trade show organizers, and there are few operations more likely to be fundamentally changed than trade shows.
With the diamond pipeline impacted significantly by COVID-19 pandemic, rough diamond sales by De Beers during second quarter of 2020 stood at $56 million, about 96 percent down from the figure reported for the same three-month period a year earlier. In the opinion of RBC Capital Markets, the diamond mining company is likely to post a $100 million loss in the first half of the year.
The COVID-19 pandemic has provided the luxury product industries an opportunity to rethink the way the way they do business. Many of the measures necessary may have had to be instituted at some time in the future, but they are more urgent now the current crisis has accelerated many consumer trends that were already underway, notes the Milan headquartered luxury markets team of the Boston Consulting Group, in a report just released in conjunction with Altagamma, the foundation responsible for promoting Italian luxury brands
With many of the action houses relying more on online bidding at any other time in their history, all as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, live auctions hope to make a triumphant return to Christie’s in New York on July 29, with Christie’s Magnificent Jewels sale becoming the first live jewelry auction by a major auction house in New York since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in North America.
Even the most optimistic forecasts of the high-end luxury product show a fall in sales of luxury personal goods from 35 percent to 45 percent as a result of the current global pandemic, reports a study just released by Milan-based office of the Boston Consulting Group together with Altagamma, the foundation responsible for promoting Italian luxury brands.
Is the COVID-19 crisis precipitating a truce or at least an agreed-to modus operandi between the natural and laboratory-grown or synthetic diamond sectors. Forbes contributor Pamela Danziger seems to think so. “In a global market transformed by COVID-19, the lab-grown and mined diamond industries have called a truce as they now face a common enemy: declining consumer demand,” she suggests in an online article published by the economic journal.
The diamond industry continues to be impacted by the ongoing coronavirus, particularly in India, which now is the country with third highest number of confirmed infections worldwide, and in Israel, which is struggling with the second wave of COVID infections after successfully getting through the first wave with relatively few casualties.
Despite the lockdown and the increased comfort with shopping using the Internet, more than 62 percent of American consumers would still prefer to buy diamond jewellery at a physical store rather than online, according to new research published today by De Beers Group in the second of its Diamond Insight ‘Flash’ Reports, which seek to highlight the evolving consumer perspective in light of COVID-19. But there is a provider, the store environment needs to be considered safe.
Despite the lockdown and the increased comfort with shopping using the Internet, more than 62 percent of American consumers would still prefer to buy diamond jewellery at a physical store rather than online, according to new research published today by De Beers Group in the second of its Diamond Insight ‘Flash’ Reports, which seek to highlight the evolving consumer perspective in light of COVID-19. But there is a provider, the store environment needs to be considered safe.
New York, the gateway to the world’s most important diamond jewelry market, kicked off Phase 3 of its four-stage reopening process, and as the city that had been hardest-hit worldwide by the COVID-19 pandemic struggles to resurrect its economy.
The June fine jewelry auction season, which took place against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, has produced some mixed results, but one definite highlight was the sale worth $2.12 million of a 28-carat diamond on the final day of Christie’s Jewels Online auction. This made it the most expensive jewel ever auctioned via the Internet, and it lent credence to the understanding that the auction is being inexorably changed.
As the fallout from the financial crisis instigated by the COVID-19 epidemic has yet to settle, it appears that one of the first major casualties could be a mining company. Following a strategic review into its capital structure options, Petra Diamonds announced on June 26 that it is now seeking offers for the company or for other assets.
It is a statement that has fast becoming a mantra during this period of global pandemic and social distancing – “the world as we know it will be forever changed” – and increasingly it becoming clearer that the business environment which will be one of those to be transformed most significantly.
With the lockdown largely ended, China’s market is a quickly ramping up, wrote Lian Qiang, President of the Shanghai Diamond Exchange (SDE), in a blog published by the World Diamond Council (WDC) and could even beginning growing before the end current calendar year. But, he noted, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted in unprecedented ways on China’s jewelry retail markets and their supply chains, making it likely that the industry will be forever changed.
The anchor of the diamond market had traditionally been matrimonial jewelry. Historically, it also has been its most stabilizing factor. Economic crises come and go, but people continue to get married. However, the COVID-19 epidemic has broken some of those rules – not by reducing people’s inclination to hitch up for better or for worse, but rather by reducing their ability to do so in the proper way.
The auction season this year is taking place against the backdrop of the COVID-19 virus, and consequently will feature a patchwork of both live and online events.
As more U.S. states are moving out of the COVID-19 lockdown, many of the consumers polled in a survey conducted on behalf De Beers indicated that there have been positive effects to their lives during the quarantine. Respondents noted focusing on more time with family, less time commuting, and feeling grateful for things they used to take for granted.