HRD Antwerp said today it will start issuing new diamond certificates with improved security features, a refined cut grade as well as an online download feature for its diamond certificates from January 5, 2009.

Instead of using two parameters for the way a diamond is cut – proportions and finish – HRD will now assess the cut according to three parameters: proportions, polish and symmetry.

From January, users will also be able to retrieve online certificates, diamond identification reports and diamond color certificates issued after January 1, 2005, 24 hours a day and seven days a week at www.hrdantwerplink.com, or via the HRD Antwerp website
By: PolishedPrices

Antwerp, Belgium–The 478-carat diamond recovered from an African mine in September has sold for $18.4 million and is expected to yield a polished stone of at least 200 carats.

Safdico, the manufacturing arm of high-end jeweler Graff Diamonds, outbid six other diamantaires to snatch up the stone, named “Leseli la Letseng” (the light of Letseng), at a tender in Antwerp, Belgium, recently, according to a release from Gem Diamonds Ltd.

The stone, recovered from the Letseng le Terai Mine in the African kingdom of Lesotho, is the 20th-largest rough diamond ever recovered and is believed to have outstanding color and clarity.

continue reading "478-carat diamond goes for $18.4 million"

For Antwerp, the world’s biggest gem trading hub, diamonds may not be its best friend after all.

Exports of uncut rocks from the square mile adjacent to the Belgian city’s central railway station plunged 36 percent to $619 million in October from a year earlier, according to the World Diamond Centre. Buying and selling has all but dried up this year after sales of Antwerp diamonds abroad rose 15 percent in 2007.

“There’s very, very little trading going on now,” said Philip Claes, a spokesman for the center, based close to the four gem trading exchanges squeezed into Antwerp’s narrow backstreets. “We’ve seen a dramatic decline.”

continue reading "Antwerp Finds Diamonds Aren’t Forever Amid Crisis and Tax Probe"

The Antwerp World Diamond Center (AWDC) recently hosted a diamond luncheon in Mumbai to which HRH King Albert II of Belgium attended. The lunch was part of the king’s state visit to India and represented the close and historical ties between the two counties’ diamond industries.
At the luncheon, Freddy Hanard, Chief Executive Officer of AWDC, spoke of the universal challenges facing the diamond world today and how diamond producers have consequently been changing their strategy. Hanard also mentioned the evolution of the diamond market and the transformation of the branding of diamonds. “I believe that Antwerp and Mumbai are complementary partners in this changing environment. Our countries will continue to enjoy excellent relations. We see India as a potential growth market and its cooperation with Antwerp is very important to us,” he said.
Antwerp has been the single-largest rough supplier to the Indian trade since the 1960s, accounting for more than 50 percent of the rough procured for processing in India. In 2007, India was Antwerp’s largest producer in terms of carat volume, with 33 percent of the total imports of polished diamonds, and the second-largest producer in terms of value, accounting for 17 percent of Belgian imports.

Source: www.diamondintelligence.com

“Diamonds, A Symbol of Value” is the theme of the fifth Antwerp Diamond Conference, being held Nov. 17 and 18 at Queen Elizabeth Hall in Antwerp. In the diamond business, added ‘value’ is found in the gap between a stone’s basic worth and its perceived worth, the Antwerp World Diamond Centre said in a statement. Understanding how and why that gap grows and contracts, and in what way it is dispersed among the various players in the distribution chain will be discussed at the conference

“There is the diamond’s basic value, determined largely by the cost of mining the gem and then producing the polished product. There is the perceived value, reliant on the regard in which the consumer holds the diamond. And then there are the underlying sets of values, all which have to be defended if the perceived value is to achieve its maximum potential”, said Freddy J. Hanard, chief executive officer of AWDC.

Value takes on a whole new dimension when it comes to marketing luxury products, essentially because demand for luxury products is driven by powerful emotional factors, which make them difficult to compare with other products.

Speakers at the conference, include:

* David Brimson, general manager European strategy and brand experience for luxury car brand Lexus.

* Richard Hytner, deputy chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide advertising agency.

* Philippe Pascal, chief executive officer of LVMH Watch & Jewellery,

* Bernard Fornas, president and CEO of Cartier.

* Gareth Penny, managing director of De Beers Group of Companies

* Sergey Vybornov, president of Alrosa Co. Ltd, who will expose their view on behalf of the diamond industry.

Source: www.jckonline.com