Antwerp reaffirms top position as the world’s leading trading hub for rough diamonds

More than 1,800 diamantaires from all over the world are travelling to Antwerp to bid on 900 different parcels of rough diamonds. The Antwerp branch of diamond auction house Bonas has organised eight auctions in a very short timeframe, with a large number of clients expected to attend.

According to Karen Rentmeesters, CEO of industry federation Antwerp World Diamond Centre, the September rush in Antwerp can be explained by several factors. “Antwerp remains the preferred trading hub for many diamond producers to bring their rough diamonds to market. On the one hand, there is the critical mass of available goods and the buyers to match them. Together, this creates the most optimal bidding conditions, resulting in the best possible prices for the goods. On the other hand, Antwerp offers a stable and predictable business environment with reliable trading partners. This unique ecosystem simply does not exist anywhere else in the world,” Rentmeesters explains.

Philip Hoymans, Managing Director of the auction house Bonas says: “Organizing eight tenders, four of them simultaneously, is something that only Bonas in Antwerp can do. With our 32 available viewing rooms, we are the only ones with the physical capacity to make this possible.”

Beyond the large viewing capacity, the numbers are equally impressive: 191 cameras oversee the security of the auctions, 8 bailiffs will be engaged, up to 2,000 weight-checks are carried out each day to ensure not a single stone is left behind after viewings, 13,000 bids are expected on the 900 parcels in total, and 850,000 carats of rough diamonds (equivalent to 170 kg) will be put up for sale, with an estimated total value of USD 90 million. The rough diamonds being auctioned originate from Botswana, Canada, Lesotho, Brazil, Tanzania, Namibia, and Angola.