Alex Antikides † - Ferrous analyst @ RI
On Wednesday October 21, we received a phone call with the sad news that Alex Antikides had died at the age of 62. Between June 2008 and October 2009, Alex had played a central role in the writing of the ferrous scrap market analysis that appears in every issue of Recycling International. Feedback suggests that many readers believed this to be the best ferrous analysis published anywhere in the world.
A week earlier, I had talked to Alex for a long time on the phone. Sounding very tired, he told me that he had suffered bleeding in his stomach and had been in hospital for some time. Unlike during our frequent talks in the past, he hardly talked about the ferrous scrap and steel markets; instead, he deliberated at length about his health, his wife Christel, and his children Tino and Alexia. He philosophised about life in general but also joked that he wanted to come to the late-October BIR Convention in Amsterdam - even if they had to bring him in a wheelchair. Little did I know that this would be our last conversation.
Alex was born in Lebanon to a Polish Jewish mother and a Greek-Cypriot father. In the early 1950s, the family came to the Netherlands. Alex graduated in Economics at Rotterdam University and later started his career in the scrap business with Hollandia, before moving to the UK to join Harlow and Jones. In later years, he became a trader, mainly in steel and ferrous scrap. Conducting business on a global scale, the fact that he spoke ten languages made it easy for him to communicate with his clients all over the world.
In the 1990s, Alex was particularly involved in trade with Eastern Europe. I had the pleasure of accompanying him on trips to Poland and the Ukraine; and with him around, it was easy to get approval for company visits and interviews. We toured both countries, saw plenty of scrap yards and spoke to many interesting people - but, above all, we had a lot of fun.
Referring to Alex’s stature, one person said of him during the BIR Convention in Amsterdam: ‘We have lost a small man, but a huge friend.’
Manfred Beck and the rest of the RI team
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