Not long ago, the news of the discovery of a super-large gold mine in Henan became a hot search. For decades, Henan's annual gold production has remained the second largest in the country. In fact, not only is the high gold production, but the production of artificial diamond in Henan is also very high. There is also the saying in the industry that "the world diamond looks at China, and the Chinese diamond looks at Henan." How can Henan expand the diamond industry? How to continue to make diamonds in Henan?
Enterprises are developing rapidly
As a typical product of consumer society, diamonds were once regarded as the king of gems because of their scarcity. However, with the emergence of artificially cultivated diamonds, the diamond market has ushered in major changes.
data shows that my country's diamond single crystal production accounts for more than 90% of the global total output, ranking first in the world. Among them, Henan's artificial diamond production accounts for 80%. As for the jewelry-grade diamond cultivation field, China's production capacity accounts for about 50% of the global total production capacity of diamond cultivation, of which 80% is located in Henan, mainly in Zhecheng County, Shangqiu City.
"Diamond cultivation, simply put, is to make artificial diamonds through technical means. At present, the supply of products is in short supply, and upstream equipment manufacturers are fully engaged." At the 7th China Superhard Materials Industry Development Conference held recently, experts and scholars at the meeting believed that with the expansion of the consumer market and application fields, the artificial diamond industry will develop rapidly.
The industry is developing rapidly and slow, and enterprises feel the deepest. In September, the diamond company from Henan - Power Diamond landed on A shares . This is the fourth diamond cultivation company in Henan to land on the A-share market after Yu Diamond, Yellow River Cyclone and Zhongbing Red Arrow.
As one of the leading enterprises in the artificial diamond industry in Henan, Huanghe Cyclone Co., Ltd. has a relatively complete industrial chain, from basic industrial-grade diamond products to complex diamond products, its products cover all upstream, middle and downstream links.
"The company invested more than 200 million yuan in scientific research funds and successfully developed diamond synthesis equipment - a six-sided artificial diamond press." Wang Yanfeng, director of the Administrative Affairs Department of the Yellow River Cyclone Company, introduced that after continuous improvement, the press tonnage has grown from 6,000 tons to 22,000 tons, and the single synthesis output has increased from the original 15 carats to 360 carats. At the same time, the grade of the produced products has also been greatly improved, not only replacing imports, but also achieving mass exports.
Driven by the artificial diamond industrial cluster, Henan has become the world's largest artificial diamond production base. Industry experts believe that the current market size of natural diamonds and jewelry exceeds US$100 billion, and the international market has gradually accepted artificially cultivated diamonds, which is a rare development opportunity for manufacturers.
The industry ecology is sound
"At present, Henan has professional research institutions, and also standardization organization and quality testing centers for this industry." Wang Qinsheng, chief engineer of Henan Diamond and Products Engineering Technology Research Center and honorary president of the Diamond Cultivation Branch of the China Jewelry and Jade Association, introduced that in addition, most of the research institutes, universities, export institutions, design institutes and leading enterprises related to this industry are gathered in Henan.
"After years of development, Henan has achieved the transformation from the research and development center of my country's superhard materials to the research and development and industrialization base of superhard materials and products." , Chairman of Henan Science and Technology Association , said that Henan has initially formed a characteristic high-tech industrial chain with superhard materials as the leader, products as the core, raw and auxiliary materials and special equipment and instruments as the basis, public technical service system as the support, and relatively concentrated and relatively complete industrial groups, laying a solid foundation for my country to become a major global superhard materials producer.
"In the application field, the output value created by Henan's superhard material enterprises accounts for more than 50% of the national output value in the same field. In addition to the three leading enterprises, Henan also has more than 200 superhard material and product production enterprises." Lu Guofan introduced that Zhecheng is known as the diamond capital and the hometown of diamond micro powder in China. Among them, diamond micropowder production and export volume account for 70% and 50% of the national market share, and large-grain single crystal production accounts for 60% of the national market share.
makes up for the development shortcomings
"Although Henan's superhard materials industry is developing rapidly, it also has problems such as weak competitiveness of mid- and high-end products, insufficient specialization and refinement of products, overcapacity of mid- and low-end products and serious homogeneity, lack or incomplete product application laboratories, weak research on cutting-edge technology, and insufficient momentum for sustainable development in the future." Wang Qinsheng gave an example, for example, in industrial applications, local precision abrasives and tools are not only difficult to enter the international high-end market, but also the domestic high-end market is mainly high-end products from developed countries, and most of these technologies are concentrated in Germany, Japan, etc.
Because of this, related companies have also had clear goals and development directions. Wang Yanfeng introduced that in the future planning of the Yellow River Tornado, it will jointly create a superhard material industrial park with national influence that integrates industrial diamonds, wire saws, and cultivation diamonds, diamond polishing, jewelry processing, third-generation semiconductor material research and development, independent brand cultivation, e-commerce and other upstream and downstream.
"Superhard materials mainly include diamond and cubic boron nitride, but for many ordinary people, when it comes to diamond, it is easiest to think of jewelry 'artificial diamonds'." Wang Qinsheng introduced that in fact, superhard materials and products are widely used in aerospace, national defense, military industry, electronic information, automobile manufacturing, machine tools, high-speed railways, oil and natural gas drilling, geological exploration, coal and mineral mining, new energy, mining and building materials and other national defense construction, national economy and cutting-edge science and technology fields.
Experts said that for a long time, many developed countries have once used superhard materials and products as a strategic reserve material, and their production technology has long imposed an embargo on relevant countries. However, with China's technological breakthroughs in the field of diamond manufacturing and mass production, "Made in China" diamonds and products will surely have better performance in the global market.
Author: Reporter Xia Xianqing Yang Zipei
Source: Economic Daily
