United front required, says head of AWDC

by eyetee | December 1, 2008 12:00 am

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A co-ordinated industry response to the current market meltdown is essential to stabilizing the worldwide diamond industry.

Speaking at the Antwerp Diamond Symposium, Freddy J. Hanard, CEO of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), said a hands-on approach is necessary to riding the economic wave.

“Above all, we live in an interdependent world,” Hanard said. “We cannot look to one single party to provide a solution for the entire industry. We have to be proactive. Like never before, we have the destiny of the industry in our hands.

“After all, our industry has prospered for centuries. This by no means is the first crisis in our industry, and yet we have always endured and succeeded. This knowledge should at least provide us all here with a great degree of confidence,” he added.

Organized by the AWDC, the symposium brought out 500 members of the international diamond sector.

Speakers stressed the fact the downturn is related to financial liquidity and not to the fundamentals of the diamond business. Major diamond producers reiterated their pledge to reduce the supply of rough.

“Market conditions are repressed because of liquidity, but the attractiveness of the product we deal in has never been higher,” said Gareth Penny, managing director of the De Beers Group. “We are dealing with a short-term problem. Diamond reserves are at an all-time low, and there has not been the discovery of a major diamond mine for years. We should not forget that we are not in the commodity business. We deal in an irreplaceable treasure that is getting rarer all the time.”

Alrosa president Sergey Vybornov said his company was also reducing the volume of rough it releases and increasing funds to promoting diamonds generically.

Source URL: https://www.jewellerybusiness.com/news/united-front-required-says-head-of-awdc/

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