De Beers forecasts 2014 polished diamonds growth at 4.5%

Global giant De Beers says polished diamond sales are set to rise 4.5% this year, according to an Agence France-Presse report circulated by media on June 11 and 12. In an interview CEO Philippe Mellier attributed growing demand to a U.S. economic recovery and expanding markets in China and India.
“The largest global market for diamond jewellery is the United States and everyone knows they are taking off again,” AFP quoted him.

De Beers Group CEO Philippe Mellier

Together China, Hong Kong and Macau make up 13% of the global market, the news agency stated. “More and more Chinese are achieving the buying power to acquire jewellery and diamonds, especially when they get married,” said Mellier.
As for India, it’s “a potentially large source of diamond demand.” Mellier called new prime minister Narendra Modi a “fervent defender of an industry which he knows well, the diamond industry, having been governor of Gujarat state, which is known for its diamond polishers.”
The forecast echoes a May 27 report by Dundee Capital Markets, which attributed the last two years of rising diamond prices to new demand in China and India, as well as an American recovery.
Dundee credited De Beers, which controls about 40% of global trade, with one of the “longest-running and most successful marketing campaigns in history, built around the slogan A Diamond is Forever,” which began in the U.S. during the 1940s. “The story was repeated in Japan in the 1950s, supplanting pearls as the romantic gift of choice, and is repeating itself again in the emerging markets of China and India. Their combined population of 2.6 billion people is expected to drive significant growth off a well-established base in the West.”
The Global Diamond Report 2013 from Bain & Company forecast a 10-year period in which 2% supply growth would be overtaken by demand growth of 5.1%. 

Source: resourceclips.com

Pink Diamonds Earn Lots of Green at Christie’s

Fancy colored diamonds continue their hot streak at auction, as two 5 ct.-plus pinks blew away their estimates to garner more than $12 million at the Christie’s June 10 Important Jewels auction in New York.
The sale’s headline stone, a 5.5 ct. fancy-vivid pink oval, fetched $9.6 million, or $1.7 million a carat—$2 million more than its $6.5 million–to–$7.5 million estimate. The buyer was described as “New York trade.” 

The 5.5 ct. fancy-vivid pink oval
In addition, another pink diamond—a 5.91 ct. fancy light VS1 rectangular cut—sold for $1.8 million, more than double its $575,000-to-$675,000 estimate.

 
The 5.91 ct. fancy light VS1 rectangular cut
In a statement, international head of Christie’s jewelry Rahul Kadakia said the fancy-vivid stone saw “enthusiastic bidding,” and noted that this year, three colored diamonds—this pink, the Winston Blue, and the Ocean Dream, which both sold last month—have brought in $42 million total.
Other notable sales include a Taffin diamond ring featuring a 20.08 ct., D VVS1 (potentially internally flawless) rectangle cut, which went for $3.1 million, or $153,240 per carat.

The Taffin diamond ring.
The auction sold 85 percent by value and 83 percent by lot and made $27.5 million total.

Source: JCK

EGL INTERNATIONAL FINDS FOUR SYNTHETIC DIAMONDS IN PARCEL OF 20 STONES FOR GRADING

EGL International in Israel has reported the discovery of four synthetic diamonds in a package containing 20 diamonds submitted for grading by an established customer. Managing Partner and CEO Guy D. Benhamou said that the stones were Type IIa diamonds, which, while rare, are the most suited to being treated.

 

Benhamou said EGL International's widespread investment in the latest technology "had proven itself" by uncovering the lab-created stones. The first stage in the examination process, using FTIR infrared spectroscopy, showed the stones to be suspicious, added Benhamou. The stones were then tested using the DiamaTest machine, produced by Hong Kong company Diamond Services Ltd., which rapidly showed that the diamonds were not natural. Finally, a Raman spectroscopy examination confirmed that the diamonds were, indeed, lab-grown.

"This incident is rather exceptional," Benhamou noted. "Media reports over the past two years, approximately, of synthetic diamonds being mixed with natural diamonds usually related to parcels of melee diamonds. Because such goods are so small, they were not usually being checked and so they could potentially pass into the supply chain.

"In this case, however, the lab-grown diamonds that were mixed in with natural goods were relatively large. We are talking about diamonds of the following sizes: 0.90, 0.91, 0.96, and 1.71 carats. They were also VS-VVS clarity, and J-K color. The conclusion is that these are quite big diamonds and of reasonably high quality. This is worrying for many reasons, but particularly because someone has raised the stakes and thinks it is now possible to introduce higher-quality, larger synthetic diamonds into the diamond jewelry pipeline," said Benhamou.

"As a top-quality laboratory, EGL International sees itself as a filter and the diamond trade's backstop working to identify and document synthetics that are trying to be introduced into the supply chain. In this way, we are also playing a critical role in ensuring that consumer confidence in diamond jewelry is not affected.

"This case shows how leading labs, such as EGL International, are fulfilling a vital mission in ensuring that such stones do not get through to the jewelry-manufacturing part of the supply chain. It also shows that the diamond business can be confident that our state-of-the-art equipment can detect such stones," Benhamou commented.

He said that the four synthetic diamonds were submitted to EGL International as part of a parcel of 20 diamonds by a long-time customer. He added that the lab's clients sign a document when handing over diamonds for inspection and grading that to the best of the customer's information they are natural diamonds. "We must assume that the client did not know," added Benhamou.

According to Benhamou, four synthetic stones were graded by EGL International and all four received the lab's "Laboratory Grown Diamond" certificates. He added that, following the standing instructions of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses, the words ‘Laboratory Grown Diamond' were inscribed on the girdle of the stones.

Can you believe there are still " Laboratories and valuers" providing certificates in Australia without the equipment necessary to identify natural diamonds. Yes its true ! and the jewellers use and respect them ?