Category: Diamond Jewellery Customer

I’d never heard of a diamond going into “surgery”, so when I was invited to watch a massive 5-carat pink diamond worth $3.2 million go under the knife (aka, diamond cutting wheel), I was more than a little curious.

“One wrong move and the stone could just shatter, then millions of dollars right down the drain”, Scott West tells me as he looks at a bright pink diamond in the palm of his hand.

The thought of shattering such a perfect gem makes me cringe, but Scott West knows what he’s doing. He and his dad, Larry West, are the father-son duo who run L.J. West Diamonds, a wholesale diamond house in New York City that’s been around for 41 years. The Wests are known as ‘diamantaires’ in the industry, experts whose primary business is sourcing and cutting rare colored diamonds.

THE HIGHEST PRICE ACHIEVED FOR ANY JEWELLERY OR GEMSTONE PURCHASED WITH CRYPTOCURRENCY

Another milestone in the adoption of cryptocurrencies is reached Landmark sale at Sothebyu2019s Hong Kong sees FIRST WORLD-CLASS 100-CARAT DIAMOND SELL TO CRYPTO-BUYER. An anonymous buyer purchases exceptional 101.38-carat Pear-Shaped D Colour Flawless Diamond for HK$95.1m / US$12.3m

Having improved its creditworthiness before and during the pandemic, the industry is learning to rely less on its lenders.

In both financial and diamond industry terms, 2017 seems like an eternity ago. Bankers at the Dubai Diamond Conference in October of that year gave a stark warning to the diamond sector: The trade is over-financed, insufficiently transparent, not profitable enough, and altogether too risky. This was their unanimous observation, to the discomfort of the audience.

With bank credit amounting to an estimated $13 billion at the time, lenders claimed the industry could function sufficiently on just $8 billion. Bankers were already reducing their exposure to the tradeu2019s risks, and many had closed their diamond units altogether.

Today, bank credit has reached that $8 billion level, according to estimates from Bain & Company (see graph). Meanwhile, the diamond industry appears to have enhanced its stature among lenders. In an unexpected twist, the midstream radically improved its liquidity position during the challenging pandemic period.

u201cWeu2019re seeing that our clients had much better profitability in 2020 than 2019,u201d reports Davy Blommaert, head of diamond lending at the Dubai-based National Bank of Fujairah (NBF). Because supply was limited, he explains, diamond value went up during the pandemic, whereas 2019 was a tough year that saw an excess of polished on the market.

RAPAPORT… Rio Tinto achieved record-breaking figures at its 2021 Argyle Pink Diamonds Tender, with prices strong amid dwindling supply from the mine.

The Australian miner offered 70 rare pink and red diamonds at the last-ever edition of the tender, which follows Argyleu2019s closure in November 2020. The u201chistoricalu201d collection, called The Journey Beyond, comprised the final diamonds mined during the Western Australian depositu2019s last year of operation, Rio Tinto said Thursday.

u201cThe 2021 Argyle Pink Diamonds Tender delivered a record-breaking price performance across individual diamonds and for the overall collection,u201d the company noted. u201cThe diamonds were fiercely contested around the world in a series of virtual and face-to-face viewings.u201d

A total of 19 bidders from nine countries successfully acquired lots, with prices maintaining their upward trajectory, Rio Tinto explained. Australian jeweler Calleija bought several stones, including the Argyle Eclipse, a radiant-shaped, 3.47-carat, fancy-intense-pink diamond, and the Argyle Bohu00e8me, a radiant-shaped, 1.01-carat, fancy-red diamond.