RAPAPORT... LDC, a jewelry manufacturer based in East Providence, RhodeIsland, has acquired precious-metals caster First Casting Company. First Casting was founded by Jerry Traficante and his wife,Susan, in 1980, with the couple continuing to run the company, according to itswebsite. Operating out of Johnston, Rhode Island, it offers casting in preciousand non-precious metals. The business will fu...Read More

RAPAPORT... Alrosa's sales continued to slump in June, closing off afirst half that saw a heavy drop in demand for its rough. The Russian miner's total sales slid 43% to $222.4million for the month, it reported Wednesday. Rough-diamond sales, whichaccount for the vast majority of that revenue, also declined 43% to $219.3million, with polished sales falling 53% to $3.1 million. The manufacturing a...Read More

Iranian steel billet and slab prices pushed up in the week to Wednesday July 10 after customers in Asia accepted higher prices following generally positive sentiment in global finished steel markets. Fastmarkets weekly price assessment for Iranian export billet price was $385-390 per tonne fob on Wednesday July 10, up from $375-385 per tonne...Read More

RAPAPORT... Amid the tech boom that is shaping the diamond industry, a growing number of companies are challenging the grading laboratories, arguing that assessing the 4Cs should not be a subjective science."Five to 10 years from now, diamond grading won't be done by gemologists," claimed Haim Volner, the owner of Shirtal Diamonds, whose subsidiary Shirtal DiaCam is developing an automated solutio...Read More

RAPAPORT... At JCK Las Vegas, lab-grown-diamond exhibitors havemushroomed nearly as much as opinions about the stones themselves. Toaccommodate growing market needs, organizers debuted the Lab-Grown DiamondNeighborhood at the 2018 edition of the trade fair."There may have been exhibitors that had lab-grown in theshow in earlier years, but they weren't grouped together in a neighborhooduntil 2018,"...Read More

Second-hand luxury retailer The RealReal went public earlier this month with an initial goal to raise $270 million. The company ultimately sold 15 million shares at $20 each for $300 million. The RealReal was founded in 2011 by Julie Wainwright and the prospectus is valued at $1.6 billion for the largely online reseller, which also operates three brick-and-mortar stores. The company claims 1.4 mil...Read More

RAPAPORT... Global rough-diamond shipments dropped last year,reflecting slower trading in India and Belgium, according to new data from theKimberley Process (KP). Total rough imports slipped 3% to $48.49 billion for 2018,with volume down 7% to 424.2 million carats, the figures showed last week.Rough exports fell 1% to $49.52 billion, while volume declined 6% to 428.6million carats. India's rough i...Read More

The Indian economic media reported earlier this week that India's government had tabled a proposal to increase import duties on precious metals with 12.5 per cent. This move would have a significant impact on consumer prices paid for gold, other precious metals and the jewelry items these are made with. "It is proposed to increase custom duty on gold and other precious metals from 10 per cent...Read More

The Namibian Deputy Minister of Mines and Energy, Kornelia Shilunga urged African diamond producers to formalize artisanal and small-scale diamond miners to maximize benefits from the sector. According to the South African news source The Southern Times, the minister said this during the African Diamond Producers Association (ADPA) 6th Ordinary Experts meeting in Windhoek earlier this week. "...Read More

Brent Eiseb, the new CEO of the  Namibia Diamond Trading Company (NDTC) has made it crystal clear that under his watch, the NTDC will not hold any tenders or auctions of its rough diamond stocks.   In an interview with the Windhoek Observer, he stated that the NDTC will distribute its rough through a Sight system. " This Sight System is premised on NDTC entering into long-term supply con...Read More

Stainless steel scrap prices in the United States were unchanged this week, but sources indicated that the market outlook could change dramatically if nickel prices on the London Metal Exchange breach the $6-per-lb threshold."LME keeps moving up," one dealer said. "Sooner or later, [price or demand] has to break, and either the market gets slaughtered or demand and prices start to perk up."While t...Read More

Ferrous scrap prices appear to have reached a bottom in the United States and many market participants believe that while August will unlikely bring a meaningful increase, the tightness in shredded scrap hints that a recovery could be closer than initially expected. Shredded scrap supply is currently tight, with several mills still in the market for material for July, sources said.A...Read More

Turkish steel producers paused their deep-sea scrap bookings again to take in the latest downturn in steel prices, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday July 10.After a steel mill in the Iskenderun region paid $288 per tonne cfr for UK-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20), on Tuesday July 9, the daily scrap indices went down by $14.78 per tonne.The drop was...Read More

Quality emerges at Galan's blue-chip lithium addressSPONSOREDgalan lithiumThe junior, which remains suspended from trading in Australia because of its infractions at its Cangai copper mine in New South Wales, and now says it will be several weeks before it expects to returnRead More

Seaborne iron ore prices fell back on Wednesday July 10, after buyers appeared to adopt a wait-and-see stance in response to rising steel product inventories.Fastmarkets' index for iron ore 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $120.96 per tonne, down $0.61 per tonne. Fastmarkets' index for iron ore 62% Fe Pilbara Blend Fines, cfr Qingdao: $120.88 per tonne, down $0.61 per tonne. Fastmarkets' index for iron...Read More

The seaborne hard coking coal market regained some strength on Wednesday July 10, with a term-contract shipment being agreed at a higher price than some participants had expected. A cargo of top-quality materials in the second-tier segment was heard to have been traded at $174.10 per tonne fob Australia, sources told Fastmarkets during the day. The sale is believed to be part of a long-term contra...Read More

China will allow another 5,550 tonnes of ferrous scrap imports in the second half of this year, according to a notice seen by Fastmarkets today.The China Solid Waste & Chemicals Management Center listed another four companies in northern and southern China that have been awarded quotas to import ferrous scrap through Xingang, Nanhai and Nansha ports in the cities of Tianjin, Foshan and Sihui.The c...Read More

In a rare move, Japan has started selling steel billet to Southeast Asia amid diving scrap prices in the country's domestic market.Steel mills in the Tokyo area have started channeling shipments of the semi-finished product to Southeast Asia, where buyers are prepared to pay higher prices than Japanese re-rollers, market sources said.While the sale of Japanese billet to Southeast Asia is not unpre...Read More

Market participants seem to be waiting for something to provide direction and that impetus is likely to come from the testimony of the United States Federal Reserve chairman later today.Market participants are counting on Fed chairman Jerome Powell to remain accommodating when testifying to Congress, with high odds that the 'insurance cut' of 25 basis points will be implemented in its July Federal...Read More

China's hot-rolled coil prices fell amid weakening futures, with traders agreeing to sell cargoes with shorter lead times at a discount to those being offered by mills. DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,890-3,900 yuan ($565-566) per tonne, down 30-40 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tianjin): 3,830-3,840 yuan per tonne, down 10-20 yuan per tonneTransaction prices fell across the country even though...Read More