THE DIAMOND BLOG
Market insight, education, and perspective from fifty years at the centre of the natural diamond trade.
Jewelry sales in the United States appeared to advance considerably ahead of other holiday season purchases, according to according to Mastercard SpendingPulse, which reported that during the critical first four days of this year’s season they rose by 78 percent, when compared to the corresponding period in 2020.
The personal luxury goods industry has come roaring back, experiencing a V-shaped recovery in 2021, reports Bain & Company, in the latest edition of its respected luxury study, produced together with Fondazione Altagamma, the Italian luxury goods manufacturers’ industry foundation.
Alrosa, Russia’s state-controlled diamond producer, has announced that it will be copying a page from De Beers’ playbook, taking into account the specifics of a client’s business when preparing parcels for its Alrosa Alliance members, the exclusive list of companies that are eligible for a regular supply of rough goods from the company.
As the hours tick away to the start of the 2021 Thanksgiving Day weekend, retailers in the world’s largest diamond jewelry market are predicting a strong start to the holiday season, the most important shopping period of any calendar year.
New research published by De Beers finds that consumers who valued information about a product’s provenance are prepared to pay a premium for such assurances, with affluent consumers being the most likely to pay a premium.
While the five days of discussion had been intensive, the event is unlikely to be remembered as a meeting in which the participants finally got to grips with the challenges that have confronted it for more than a decade – and more specifically the definition of “conflict diamonds” to include instances of violence outside the context of civil war.
The diamond industry, although tangentially connected to fashion, is a minor offender in comparison. While its product is mined and is actually comprised of carbon, the process by which diamonds are extracted and processed have a relatively small environmental footprint. But small as it may be, it is not non-existent, meaning that it, too, is contributing to global warming and climate change.
Speaking to the full assembly of delegates during the Opening Session of the 2021 Kimberley Process (KP) Plenary, World Diamond Council President Edward Asscher has once again Kimberley Process members to agree to expand the conflict diamond definition in order to support long-term consumer confidence.
On November 1 the De Beers announced a new global campaign. It retains the spirit of a the original “A Diamond is Forever” promotion, but this time is more vague as what committed relationship is being honored. Centered around the expression “I do,” it clearly is designed to appeal to couples considering marriage, but De Beers also is reaching for a broader audience.
Almost a year later, the final results are in, with conclusive data about COVID-impacted 2020 being provided by De Beers in its recently released Insight Report. According to the document, global demand for diamond jewelry in 2020 declined by an estimated 14 percent year-on-year to $68 billion, mostly as a result of a sharp drop in sales during in the six months of the year, was followed by moderating second six months.
Sustainability considerations now rank on par with price and design for global consumers when purchasing diamonds, with fine jewelry ranking third, after only food and clothing, as the category most frequently purchased on the basis of sustainability considerations, and one in five consumers globally having bought jewelry in recent years specifically because of its sustainability credentials. This according to new research published by the De Beers Group in its eighth annual Diamond Insight Report.
In a just published interview with Britain’s Financial Times, Alrosa’s deputy chief executive Evgeny Agureev said that the company’s inventories are at historic lows. But he did not cite overwhelming market demand for the situation, but rather mine closures and lack of new projects.
“Whether you choose a lab-grown diamond or a lab-grown stone …, you can be sure that our jewelry is kind to your bank and even kinder to our planet, says the tagline on the homepage of a British online jewelry retailer, the Cornwall-based Ethica Diamonds, which just become the subject of an official complaint by United Kingdom’s advertising watchdog organization, the Advertising Standards Authority (AS).
Reporting its results at the end of the third quarter of 2021, Alrosa, the state-controlled Russian diamond mining company that along with De Beers produces in excess of 70 percent of the world’s rough output, has provided a relatively upbeat view of the market.
Some had believed that the end of Namibia’s long diamond history was in sight, but to paraphrase Mark Twain reports of its death were somewhat exaggerated. After lengthy negotiations the Namdeb Diamond Corporation, the equally-held joint venture between the De Beers Group and the government of Namibia it was announced that a new long-term business plan had been approved, which the company says will extend the current life-of-mine of its land-based operations by as much as two more decades, through to 2042.
The De Beers survey off the coast of Greenland will help determine whether the seabed contains deposits of marine diamonds.
A pioneering capacity-building project launched by De Beers for artisanal miners in Sierra Leone three years ago has made history by selling its first parcel of rough diamonds at an auction in Singapore, alongside diamonds from the mining house’s regular production.
The COVID pandemic of the past year and a half has provided the public some insight as to how carefully the drug and pharmaceutical industry is regulated. With national authorities strictly monitoring how both vaccines and therapies are administered, even during times of crisis developers are required to traverse a labyrinth of obstacles before their product can be offered to patients. There is no central authority, but much of the world takes its lead from the vaunted Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States, and only under exceptional circumstances is prepared to take an independent stand.
How much a difference a year makes. While at this time in 2020, with the second wave of the coronavirus crashing down in parts of the world, members of the diamond industry looked toward the final quarter of the year with a sense of nervousness and trepidation. While the greatly feared collapse of the market, along with the world economy, had not happened, there still was no certainty that consumers would have an appetite for diamonds during the all-important holiday season.
For 40 years, the United Nations had marked September 21 as the International Day of Peace. Established in 1981 by the UN General Assembly, in 2001, the same body unanimously voted to designate the day as a period of non-violence and cease-fire, inviting all nations and people to honor it through education and public awareness on issues related to peace.
There are a number givens about the Chinese market. One is that with 1.3 billion inhabitants, it is very large. It is also very dynamic.
Marie-Antoinette, the Austrian archduchess who became a dauphine of France in May 1770 when she married Louis-Auguste, heir apparent to the French throne, and later the French Queen, until the French Revolution, and ultimately her execution at age 37 by guillotine on October 16, 1793, continues to enjoy celebrity status akin to the late Princess Diana and the current Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle. A Magnificent Jewels sale sale at Christie’s in Geneva I,on November 9, 2021,s depending on her notoriety to ensure its success.
Generation Z consumers, it is widely believed, are more inclined to demand that the products they buy have social, as well as economic value. This, the market analysts say, is especially relevant where it comes to luxury products, which are generally non-essential and often are purchased to express an emotion, like love, or to enhance ones prestige or feeling of self-appreciation.
The spark that ignited the recent eruption of violence in parts of South Africa was the refusal of the country’s disgraced former president Jacob Zuma to surrender to legal authorities, and so begin a 15-month prison sentence for contempt of court.
Indications that the U.S. market is headed for a spectacular year continue to collect with the country and the world’s largest jewelry chain reporting that sales during its second fiscal quarter, which ended on July 31, were better than expected.