20,000 jobs lost in Surat as diamond demand fades

                        Diamond Workers

Plummeting demand for cut and polished diamonds in the West and China has pushed some 20,000 workers out of work in the last one month in Surat, where 80% of the diamonds sold globally are polished.

Surat, the main centre of India’s diamond industry, offers employment to some 800,000 workers in its 4,000-odd cutting and polishing units. But work has been drying up, forcing the units to work at 60-70% capacity, said Damji Mavani, secretary of Surat Diamond Association (SDA). It also means fewer workers are needed.

“Fear is looming large in the diamond city of Surat whether the recession of 2008 will be repeated this year too,” said Bhavesh Tank, vice president of Diamond Workers Union, Gujarat. “Orders are fewer and so the workload is less. Therefore, the units are reducing workforce. Some units are cutting down work days so that they do not have to pay the workers on days when they are not working.”

According to Tank, nearly 20,000 diamond workers in Surat have lost jobs in the last one month.

The US is the biggest market for cut and polished diamonds, followed by China.

India’s diamond exports began slowing in November last year. According to data from the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), overall gross exports of cut and polished diamonds in the April to November period of FY23 declined by 5.43% from the year-ago period.

Another reason is the dropping price of the polished pieces. While the price of rough diamonds continues to be high, that of the polished ones have softened due to low demand, which is impacting the margins of diamantaires and forcing them to reduce workforce.

Mavani of SDA said the workers who have lost their jobs will find work in other areas. “There is a 30% vacancy in most of the factories,” he said.

However, there’s an air of uncertainty in Surat due to the fear of recession in the US, Europe and China. “We do not know when the situation will improve. It may take one year for a robust uptick in demand from overseas markets,” the SDA secretary said.

“With the pandemic in China making a comeback and there are no signs of respite from the war between Russia and Ukraine, inflation soaring in some parts of the world, we are out there for some tough times,” said Vipul Shah, chairman, GJE ..

Shah said the drop in price of polished diamond is eating into the margins of traders.

Traders said business in polished diamonds is also sluggish because of the seasonal lull, lingering economic uncertainty, and the slowdown in China. Although China eased its Covid-19 lockdowns last month, another outbreak stifled the recovery ahead of their Lunar New Year.

Source: economictimes.indiatimes

GIA Launches The Digital Diamond Dossier

                 Digital GIA Diamond Dossier

The start of 2023 marks a significant milestone in the digital transformation of the global diamond industry – the launch of the fully digital GIA Diamond Dossier, the most widely available diamond grading report in the world. The GIA Diamond Dossier is available for D-to-Z diamonds from 0.15 to 1.99 carats without colour treatments. Printed GIA Diamond Dossier reports issued before January 2023 remain valid.

Tom Moses, GIA Executive Vice President and Chief Laboratory and Research Officer, said, “The launch of the digital GIA Diamond Dossier report starts the conversion of all GIA’s laboratory reports to a modern digital format. This important change improves data security, offers efficiencies across the supply chain and reduces our reliance on paper.”

The first digital GIA Diamond Dossier report was issued at the GIA laboratory in Ramat Gan, Israel, on Monday, 2nd January 2023. More than 33 million printed GIA Diamond Dossier reports were issued since the introduction of the service in 1998.

Pritesh Patel, GIA’s Chief Operating Officer, added, “In 2025, when all GIA reports are digital, retailers and consumers will find greater convenience and a more immersive experience. Eliminating printed reports is an important advancement, reducing the impact of using, shipping and storing the nearly 40 tons of paper and plastic that go into printed GIA reports each year.”

The secure digital GIA Diamond Dossier is available in the reimagined GIA App or on computers, tablets and phones through the robust and secure online GIA Report Check Service and the GIA advanced application programming interface (API) for commercial users. The digital report service includes a Report Access Card with the report number, a QR code linking to the digital report and 4Cs information to embed into receipts, invoices and e-commerce sites.

The new GIA App is widely available for Apple and Android devices. The Android app for China is in development and will be available at a later date. The GIA Match iDTM inscription matching service is expected to be available in the first half of 2023, accessible exclusively through the reimagined GIA App.

Printed GIA Diamond Dossier reports issued before January 2023 remain valid.

Source: DCLA

Jwaneng is World's Richest Diamond Mine

                    Diamond mine Botswana

The world’s richest diamond mine for the first three quarters of 2022 was Jwaneng, in Botswana, with 10.3m carats.

Orapa, also in Botswana, was second-placed with 8.0m carats, according to newly-published figures from miningintelligence.com.

Both mines are operated by Debswana, a partnership between De Beers and the government of Botswana.

Third on the list is Udachny mine, operated by Alrosa, the sanctioned Russian miner. The 4.6m-carat figure is based on its 2021 production, assuming trends since 2019 continued.

Fourth is the Venetia mine, in South Africa (4.6m carats), operated by De Beers and fifth is Nyurba, in Russia, with 3.6m carats (with same caveat as for Udachny).

Jwaneng and Orapa are also listed as the two highest value diamond mines, estimated at $1.25bn and $976m, both based on average historic annualized prices of $121.5 per carat.

Source: DCLA

Antwerp Diamond Polishers Develop Device That Uses AI to Grade Colored Stones

Fancy colour diamonds

Chroma Diamonds founded by Alexander Appels and Jan De Henau is a relatively new company in the Antwerp diamond district, which specializes in colored diamonds. Stymied by the relatively “subjective process of color grading”, the 2 have set out on a mission to develop a device that provides more objective measurements for the grading of colored stones.

The device will utilize AI gathering data points and becoming smarter with each new set of inputs. They believe with sufficient time the device would learn enough to be able to more accurately grade certain stones, especially in resolving cases where certain grading criteria place the value of diamond on the edge of a color category but not quite enough to satisfy it being classified in the next grade above.

“Customers come to us with high expectations. After all, the value of their diamond is determined by, among other things, the color and intensity of that color, and let it (partly) depend on the cut and the people in the grading office, we hear. Because it is they who assign the diamond an official color, and therefore also determine its value definitively,” explains Appels.

Though this idea is not new to the Diamond District the duo has taken things one step further receiving support from the innovation process of the City of Antwerp. They plan on using and testing the device in their own business first as proof-of-concept before taking it to the greater market.

Source: Bloovi

Stolen Dresden diamonds recovered in Berlin police raid

                The Dresden Green Diamond

German police seized large parts of the stolen treasures from the 2019 looting of Dresden’s famous “Green Vault.”

During a raid in Berlin in the early hours of Saturday, police special forces and public prosecutors found and secured 31 items representing a “significant part” of the stolen artifacts, authorities said.

In an initial inspection, investigators found that several pieces appeared to be intact, among them the hat decoration and star of the Polish Order of the White Eagle from the stolen diamond set.

The items were transferred to Dresden under the protection of special police forces, where they’ll be examined forensically and then by specialists from the Dresden State Art Collections to check their authenticity.

The Dresden incident was one of a number of heists carried out at German museums in recent years. In November, thieves broke into a museum in Bavaria and made off with nearly 500 ancient gold coins worth several million euros.

In 2020, a Berlin court convicted three men of stealing a 100-kilogram (220-pound) gold coin worth $4 million from a museum in the center of the German capital.

Source: mining.com

Top Lots Smash Estimates at Phillips Jewelry Sale

 Top Lots Smash Estimates at Phillips Jewelry Sale

                        Pink diamond necklace 

A pink-diamond necklace led the most recent jewelry auction at Phillips, smashing its high estimate to bring in $1.9 million following a “fierce” bidding battle.

The oval, 4.05-carat, fancy-intense-pink diamond pendant by Boodles was estimated at $800,000 to $1.2 million at the December 13 New York sale. It is one of eight lots in the top 10 that beat their presale high price tags.

In total, the sale garnered $7.4 million, with 81% of items on offer finding buyers.

“We are delighted to conclude the year on such a high note,” said Benoît Repellin, worldwide head of jewelry for Phillips. “With enthusiastic bidding across the globe — from Egypt, to Korea, to Brazil — the sale demonstrated the continued appeal for rare colored and colorless diamonds, as well as for exceptional signed pieces.”

A round cut-cornered rectangular modified brilliant-cut, 30.65-carat, fancy-intense-yellow diamond ring sold for $693,300, exceeding its $500,000 high estimate.

Read More: Diamonds.net

NECKLACE WITH 42 ENGAGEMENT RING DIAMONDS

    Drake For All The Times I Wanted To Propose

Drake isn’t afraid to fall in love, and now he’s got an insanely flashy piece of jewelry to prove it — a necklace with 42 engagement ring diamonds — for all the times he’s wanted to propose.

Celebrity Jeweler Alex Moss tells TMZ … Champagne Papi’s new piece is called “Previous Engagements,” a tribute to all the women Drizzy contemplated asking to marry him, but never went through.

In total, we’re told the piece’s 42 stones count for 351.38 carats in diamonds. On top of all the ice, it’s made using 18K white gold and was set using the eagle claw technique.

Alex tells us the entire thing took 14 months to complete and was built by hand in NYC … though he won’t reveal how much it cost.

Drake debuted it at Lil Baby’s birthday concert in Atlanta last Saturday at State Farm Arena.

42 may seem like a lot, but there’s always room to add more for The Certified Lover Boy.

Source: DCLA