Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Rapaport News

Market Comments 2/13/2009Slight improvement in cutting center trading activity and market sentiment. Some dealers are buying select goods from distress sellers at very low cash prices. Consumer demand for jewelry is poor but bridal demand is holding up and supporting under the carat cert market. Rio Tinto '08 diamond revenue -18% to $840 mil., earnings -51% to $137 mil. Yakutia Russia '08 rough production flat at $2.6 bil., but polished +8% to $147 mil. U.S. Dec. polished imports -25% to $967 mil. and polished exports -20% to $805 mil. Belgium Jan. polished exports -26% to $558 mil. rough imports -44% to $461 mil. Dubai '08 gold imports +21% to 743 tons, exports +29% to 409 tons. South Africa ’08 diamond production -16% to 12.7 mil. cts. De Beers launches Forevermark Precious Collection in Hong Kong.