Glittering Stones News,Diamonds news,Gems and jewelry news

India is the world’s largest manufacturer of diamonds, is taking steps to move insistently into the procurement of roughs by setting up its own syndicates. Over 120 years after De Beers, the global diamond group, set up its own middle selling organisation, India’s diamond city of Surat, which cuts and polishes nine out of 11 of the world’s diamonds, is seeking to assurance its own supply of the raw material. Surat Diamond Sourcing India has been recognized to source diamonds directly from mining firms across the globe.
For five decades Indian diamond industry players in have been buying roughs at sale at major global trading hubs such as Belgium and Israel. Antwerp, where 80 per cent of all rough diamonds and 50 per cent of all cut diamonds are handled, is where more than half of Surat’s diamonds are bought at auction while the rest are sourced from major diamond companies.
India has had strong links with De Beers, Alrosa, the Russian diamond producer, and BHP Billiton, the resources group, who all act as middlemen.
Four years after Diamond India Limited was set up to unify India’s 58 most important diamond and jewellery manufacturers and exporters, Surat Diamond Sourcing India has been set up as a consortium of 500 small, medium and large units out of the 4,500 in service in the city.
With an initial capital of around $220m in its reach, the company has decided to source rough stones directly from mines in Africa, Russia, Canada and Australia. While larger manufacturers and dealers have put $230,000 each into the kitty, smaller companies have invested around $115,000.
India currently controls around 85 per cent of global volumes and 70 per cent of value and it is hoped that the move will broaden India’s influence over the industry. But as India tries to assert its nationalistic authority on a world stage, it doesn’t look like there will be any significant power shift away from the big players.
India’s export share in the world market is estimated to double by 2015 from its current level of 20 per cent, as a result of high demand from China, Hong Kong and regions such as the Middle East, South East Africa, the US and Canada, which are home to huge records of the Indian diaspora.

In the last three months of 2009, according to the centralized Ministry of Finance in Moscow, Russia exported about 250,000 carats of rough diamonds, shaped by Alrosa, to the west African republic of Guinea. There is no known diamond cutting or polishing facility in Guinea, and Russia has in no way exported diamonds to Guinea before. However, dishonest sales of diamonds have been reported as using Guinea as a transit point between the mines in Africa and the markets in Israel, Europe, the US, or elsewhere.

The Finance Ministry in Moscow supervises the diamond division and the state stockpile; its minister, Alexei Kudrin, is chairman of the board of Alrosa. The ministry is also in charge of monitoring fulfillment with the Kimberley Process for certificating diamond trading that does not involve diamonds mined illegally. As part of Russia’s compliance, the ministry issues regular reports on Russian exports.

The hottest report covers 2009. It indicates that a total of 14.708 million carats were exported, for a declared value of $1.229 billion. Approximately all of these stones were sold by Alrosa. Alrosa also sold 14 million carats of its production to the state store agency, Gokhran, during the year.

The impact of the autumn 2008 global financial crisis shows in the near-halt of diamond exports from Russia in the first quarter. Just 135,597 carats were exported, according to the Finance Ministry report, worth $724,000. Compared to the same quarter of 2008, when shipments of 6,649,000 carats were recorded, in volume terms the export flow fell 49 times.

In the second quarter of 2009, Russia reports exporting 2,713,000 carats, at a value of approximately $30 million. Most of the deal went to Belgium (2,016,000 carats), followed by Israel (253,658 carats).

In the third quarter, as Alrosa’s marketing found new buyers, growing demand, and rising prices, the exports reached 5,334,000 carats, worth $540.9 million. In the fourth sector, the export volume rose again to 6,525,000 carats, at a value of 656 million. Belgium accounted for 73% of the goods and India for 19%.

The diamond market has improved from the global decline, according to Petra Diamonds, with prices close to the level they were in June 2008. And the Petra’s sales income rose 88 per cent to $177.7 million in June 2010 compared to $94.4 million in June 2009 due to the extension of the recovery in rough diamond process and enlarged group production. Gross production rose six per cent to 1.165 million carats at the same time as diamond sales rose 11 per cent to 1.125 million. The compact has a momentous stake (about 75 per cent) in Tanzania’s Williamson diamond mine. The rest (about 25 per cent) is held by the Tanzanian Government.

According to the firm’s website the Williamson mine, based in Mwadui, Shinyanga region posted an inspiring revenue sales increase of 53 per cent in the year ending June 2010 to $14.4 million from $9.4 million in the same period in 2009. Diamonds shaped increased by 20 per cent to 101,071 carats from 84,486 carats in June 2009. Diamond sold improved by 22 per cent to 91,901 carats in June 2010 from 75,045 carats. The average price was $157 per carat in the year finish June 2010 up from $126 per carat in the year ending June 2009.

As prices fell in the economic year 2008/09 the Tanzania government exempted all gemstones mining companies, including Petra Diamonds from paying royalties. The country charges about five per cent royalty for gemstones. Petra said, in spite of recovery the market landscape has changed – possibly forever. Previously, the US was the world’s most important market for gems, but Asia is now attractive more important to the production.

Asia is “more than taking up the relaxed from the US,” according to Mr Johan Dippenaar, Petra’s chief executive. Evidence of China‘s new significance was seen by the new purchase of the outstanding 507 carat Cullinan Heritage diamond for $35.3 million (£23.3 million) by Chow Tai Fook, a leading Chinese jeweller. The Cullinan mine shaped a more seven stones over the year to June 30 that were sold for in overload of $1 million each.

The group thinks that price of irregular diamonds may ease lower over coming months, before increasing towards the Christmas period. Petra Diamonds is a leading supplier of rough diamonds, with a major reserve base of 262 million carats. The mine frequently produces large, high-quality stones and is a resource of rare and exceptionally valuable fancy pink diamonds.