RAPAPORT. Leaders of Israel’s diamond sector expressed confidence in a recovery after strong trading in the final months of last year offered hope that the worst of the coronavirus crisis was over.
Israel’s final 2020 result a 31% slump in polished exports was better than many had feared during the height of the downturn, executives noted last week. Sales in December skyrocketed as demand picked up during the holiday season.
The Covid-19 pandemic was severe for the Israeli diamond sector, cutting off its strongest sources of business in the US and the Far East and pushing the country into three lockdowns. Israel Diamond Exchange president Yoram Dvash warned in July that the nation’s industry was “on the verge of collapse” after exports fell by more than 80% in the period from March to May.
RAPAPORT. Sales of jewelry and watches at LVMH dropped 24% in 2020 due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Revenue from the categories fell to EUR 3.36 billion ($4.07 billion), as the luxury retailer which owns Bulgari and Chaumet was forced to close stores and manufacturing sites for several months in most of the countries in which it operates. The ban on international travel also hurt LVMH, which gains revenue from tourist spending.
Comparable-store sales for the jewelry and watch division slid 23%, while profit plunged 59% to EUR 302 million ($366.2 million).
The jewelry results do not include revenue from the newly purchased Tiffany & Co., as LVMH only finalized the deal earlier this month.
RAPAPORT. The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has uncovered three synthetic moissanites with forged inscriptions that fraudsters had used to misrepresent them as natural diamonds.
The cases at the Johannesburg laboratory marked the first times the GIA had discovered fake girdle inscriptions on diamond simulants, it said in a recent article in its academic journal,
Gems & Gemology.
The lab initially received a round brilliant, 1.02-carat stone for a diamond-grading report. The report number on the girdle was for an E-color natural diamond with the same weight that was graded in 2019, but the dimensions were different because moissanite has lower specific gravity, meaning that it weighs less relative to its volume.
RAPAPORT. Lucara Diamond Corp. has unearthed a white diamond weighing 378 carats at its Karowe mine in Botswana, the second over 300 carats the deposit has produced since the start of the year.
The miner recovered the “magnificent,” gem-quality, unbroken, type IIa stone from the site’s south lobe M/PK(S) area, known for its large, high-quality rough, it said Tuesday.
Earlier this month, Lucara retrieved a 341-carat, high-quality diamond at the site. Including this newest find, the company has unearthed 55 diamonds over 200 carats since 2015.
“The 378-carat [stone] joins a rare and special lineage of exceptional, high-value diamonds recovered at Karowe, and continues to highlight the wonderful diamond potential of Botswana,” said Lucara CEO Eira Thomas. “Continued and consistent recovery of [these] large diamonds…comes at a critical time and provides continued strength and additional foundation to the opportunity to finance and build the underground expansion at Karow
Synthetics Producer Rebrands in Sustainability Push WD Lab Grown Acquires CVD Maker Jan 27, 2021 11:32 AM By Rapaport News
RAPAPORT. WD Lab Grown Diamonds is overhauling its brand and expanding its production capabilities, aiming to meet rising demand for synthetics and respond to a sharpened focus on social purpose.
The company will change its name to Latitude, and will work toward sustainability certification through SCS Global Services, a third-party certifier and standards developer, WD said Tuesday.
This will enable WD to “better serve growing consumer demand as lab-grown diamonds evolve into an increasingly important category in the conscious consumer’s mind,” the company noted.