It did not take long for Diamond Shipbroking owner Vassilis Diamantidis to figure out what he wanted to be in life.
His first shipping job with Tsakos Shipping & Trading in the 2000s made him familiar with many different aspects of the shipping business, from crewing to spares to purchases.
It was the chartering department, however, that caught his eye.
“The special thing and the biggest challenge about it is that every day is different — the job starts from scratch every single morning,” he told TradeWinds.
Having decided to set out in the business on his own, Diamantidis quickly realised he would have to focus on a niche.
“When you don’t have the manpower and you’re not a multinational shop that can do everything, the key is to focus on something,” he said.
He focused on large bulk carriers — a chartering segment still under-represented in the Athens and Piraeus shipping scene.
“I saw a market vacuum there, which exists to this day, 20 years later,” he said.
The way Diamantidis went about filling that gap was equally imaginative.
At the young age of 22, he packed up and moved to Brazil, a country with which his father, Yiannis Diamantidis, a social democratic politician who later became shipping minister, had connections.
“Everybody used to focus on the demand side of the business, in China. I went straight to the supply instead,” he said.
While in Latin America, Diamantidis developed relations with local mining giant Vale that served him well when he set up his own shop back home.
In 2005, Diamond Shipbroking began quoting cargoes directly to Greek owners of capesizes and panamaxes.
Cutting out middlemen outside Greece helped him secure Diamond Shipbroking’s first jobs.
“Owners were hooked when they found out there was a Greek office that directly marketed such cargoes, providing serious information with one or two commissions less,” he said.
The unstoppable growth of the Greek fleet also helped provide a stable supply of Hellenic customers.
Clients include shipowners such as John Coustas-led Danaos Corp — a boxship player that moved into capesize owning in recent months. Another is Harry Vafias-led Brave Maritime, which has bought 10 such ships over the past couple of years.
Long-standing clients have included the Transmed group, as well as most of Greece’s other capesize players.
“I don’t see ourselves as an information broker who just quotes everything or a post office through which the business flows and just tries to do the fixing,” he said.
“We are providing advice, from commercial to post-fixing until the file closes, and we manage to have zero legal cases.”
However, to fulfil that role, Diamond Shipbroking has realised it needs to grow. The company has agreed on new hirings that brought its size to about 15 brokers and is moving to new offices in Athens.
Even though Athens has become a convenient place to carry out business, Diamantidis believes he needs to be physically present outside Greece as well.
His expansion plans include setting up an office in Geneva and Singapore.
A “right person” in Asia would be of the essence to provide timely information when the day starts in Athens.
“I need clients to have reporting, I need them to know what direct and indirect competitors in the Far East are doing,” he said.
