RAPAPORT... All things — the best and the worst — must come to an end at some point. Freddy Hanard’s leadership of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) ended on January 1, as the industry welcomed a new year, and Ari Epstein assumed the chief executive officer’s position of Antwerp’s umbrella organization for the diamond sector.
In his leave-taking of the position he has held since AWDC was organized in 2006, Hanard met with RDR to summarize what he considers his term’s three greatest achievements. “First, there was the restructuring of the HRD into two new entities, AWDC and HRD Antwerp, which we managed to do pretty well. Then there was the world economic crisis that we had to overcome. Actually, I believe Antwerp came through that quite well, especially if you consider how much stronger our links are now with Russia and China.”
Then, of course, came the “Antwerp 2020 Vision.” It was a 70-page document prepared with input from young diamantaires, as well as bankers, mining companies and people outside the industry, in order to better define “where and how we would like to see Antwerp in 2020,” continued Hanard. “Today, Antwerp is still the world’s largest diamond center, but we won’t continue to be if we don’t adapt ourselves and get modernized. At some point, one has to think outside the box, and that’s what we did with the 2020 Vision. This document is part of the heritage Ari is getting from us.”
Not all of his goals for the organization and the industry were realized, Hanard admitted. “If there is one dream I cherish for Antwerp, it is that there would be an administrative, legal and judicial framework specific to certain business sectors, among them the diamond business, so that there wouldn’t be such vigorous police raids and fiscal pressure on our members and our operations,” said Hanard. “But, the counterpart to that is that our sector will have to become even more transparent, and transparent to such an extent that all the political bodies and even the people in the streets recognize that the diamond industry is one of the jewels of this country and that they would be proud of it.”
Brink’s Diamond Access Blocked
Fortunately for the Antwerp diamond industry, the Brink’s dispute that blocked all access to $200 million worth of diamonds being held in a Belgium airport vault has at last been resolved. Alain Zenner, one of the two temporary managers of the company, said that the dispute “started as a social issue. The new Brink’s Dutch management decided in 2010 that going forward, all Brink’s Belgium workers who had the status of ‘employees’ — a higher status than that of ‘workers’ — would see their status downgraded to that of workers.”
The affected employees and then their unions “reacted vigorously, which led one of the employees to decide not to give access to the vaults rented by the company to Flight Care, the company in charge of all circulation and transportation on the premises of Brussels’ Zaventem airport,” said Zenner.
The issue was complicated by the fact that Brink’s Belgium was unprofitable for years and had filed for bankruptcy. “The Brink’s management decided to transfer the company’s diamond and jewelry transport division, its only profitable activity, from Brink’s Belgium to Brink’s Diamond & Jewelry Services, a sister company that had until then been dealing only with import/ export duty matters,” explained Zenner. “At the end of the day, the diamond industry was caught in the middle of a conflict between sister companies over the ownership of the diamond and jewelry business.” A Brussels court approved the release of the diamonds a few days after access was blocked.
AWDC wouldn’t say more than “the matter has been settled and other European airports were used during the $200 million blockade. Obviously, alternative solutions are being reviewed to avoid such a disagreeable situation occurring again.”
Antwerp Diamond Conference
Beginning in 2002, the Antwerp Diamond Conference was organized — and promoted — as a world-class event by the AWDC. Featuring such exceptional guest speakers as former U.S. President Bill Clinton, the two-day conference was considered a very valuable tool for helping the city increase its sparkle, both internationally and on a national scale. It was also a forum for debates to take place regarding specific and delicate topics and issues affecting the diamond industry itself.
The conference scheduled for 2008, in the midst of the global economic crisis, was canceled. But it appears to be rising from its ashes, and the fifth Antwerp Diamond Conference is now scheduled for 2011. This time, it will not take place in November as in prior years but, rather, in April or May. There has been no official announcement of who the major guest speaker will be. The only thing that is certain is that after a few years of belt-tightening, the Antwerp diamond industry appears to be back on the global map.
The Marketplace
• All sizes in G-I and VS-SI1 are moving very well.
• Commercial piqué 1 and piqué 2 goods are in strong demand across the board, resulting in a big increase in prices.
• Sellers like the pricing flexibility they have with uncertified goods. A 1 percent price increase in certified goods is very difficult to pass on, even when those goods are moving well, because prices for certified stones are widely publicized. It is very easy for buyers to locate the goods they want on internet lists and very common for them to then buy from the cheapest source. But prices on uncertified goods are not so readily available, so sellers have more freedom in increasing prices — even by as much as 10 percent — when demand is strong.
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - January 2011. To subscribe click here.