Text/Chen Haoxing
Diamonds are known as the "King of Gemstones". For many years, diamond rings have been regarded as one of the most important wedding accessories due to their sparkling characteristics and rock-solid hardness.
Most people have the impression that diamonds are extremely expensive. But now, a small and inconspicuous county town has "knocked down" the price of diamonds.
How thick is the Zhecheng diamond "family base"?
Diamonds are generally divided into two categories: natural diamonds and lab-grown diamonds. Among them, natural diamonds are non-renewable resources, while lab-grown diamonds can be mass-produced through synthetic methods. The successful mass production of diamonds through artificial cultivation is the key to Zhecheng County, Shangqiu City, Henan Province becoming the "Diamond Capital".
In Zhecheng County, the current annual output of diamonds can reach 1.5 billion carats of single crystals and 4.7 billion carats of diamond powder, accounting for 70% and 50% of China's market share respectively in terms of annual output and export volume.
In 2021, the global production of lab-grown diamonds will be 9 million carats, and Zhecheng County alone will produce 4 million carats, accounting for almost half of the world's lab-grown diamonds. By 2024, Zhecheng will produce 8 million carats of lab-grown diamonds annually.
The cultural and tourism department of Henan Province once used diamonds as a means to attract tourists to promote the development of Henan's tourism industry.
According to a video previously posted by the official account of Henan Cultural Tourism Douyin, at a high-speed rail station in Henan, as long as tourists can answer verses or questions correctly, they will have the opportunity to get a free diamond. Many tourists are full of wonder when they get the diamonds, and they show the diamonds they get for free to the tourists who come and go.
Why Zhecheng?
Zhecheng County, once famous for its chili peppers and beef cattle, is a typical plain agricultural county, with no mountains and few mines, and the geographical advantages of developing the diamond industry are not obvious. What is it that makes it a hotbed of lab-grown diamonds?
The reason why Zhecheng can grasp the industrial outlet is closely related to the industrial foundation of local lab-grown diamonds.
In the 60s of the last century, Zhengzhou Abrasives and Abrasives Grinding Research Institute successfully developed China's first synthetic diamond and core equipment - six-sided top press, which broke the technical bottleneck, and the production efficiency was 10 times higher than the previous two-sided top press, and it was more cost-saving in consumables.
Subsequently, an engineer from Shangqiu, Henan Province, founded a company in Zhecheng called the Shaoyuan Diamond Factory. Although this decision was not understood at the time, it brought an important industry to the poor county at the time.
As more and more people understand diamond technology, local people have opened large and small diamond enterprises one after another. After years of development, Zhecheng County has gradually built a diamond industry base, and has successively formulated policies such as the "China Diamond Capital" Development Outline and the "Five-Year Development Plan for Zhecheng County's Superhard Material Industry" to promote industrial development, and put forward the goal of cultivating 50 billion industrial clusters.
Zhecheng's jewelry-grade lab-grown diamond industry has also taken a ride on the development of the industrial diamond industry and stood out in the industry.
At present, Zhecheng has the reputation of "National High-tech Industrialization Base of Superhard Materials and Products", and there are more than 100 superhard materials and related supporting enterprises. The synthetic diamond industry, which is mainly used in industry, and the superhard material industry that has expanded from it are the confidence of Zhecheng to develop the jewelry-grade lab-grown diamond industry.
This small inland county in Henan Province gave birth to two listed companies in the diamond industry within a year.
In July 2022, Zhecheng Huifeng Diamond Technology Co., Ltd. was listed on the main board of the Beijing Stock Exchange. This is the second listed company in the diamond industry in Zhecheng within one year after Henan Power Diamond Co., Ltd. was listed on the GEM of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in September 2021.
What is the prospect of Zhecheng's lab-grown diamond industry?
At the beginning of 2024, De Beers Group, a leading international diamond company, once again lowered the prices of a variety of rough diamonds at the first rough diamond viewing this year.
According to people familiar with the matter, the current price reduction of rough diamonds above 2 carats is more than 15%, the average price reduction of rough diamonds of 0.75~2 carats is between 10% ~ 15%, and the price of rough diamonds below 0.75 carats has experienced a price reduction of 5% ~ 10%, and the comprehensive price reduction range is about 10%.
The price of natural diamonds has been declining, and the price of lab-grown diamonds has also been affected to some extent.
Freistegger, director of the Belgian Federation of Diamond Bourses, has publicly stated that two years ago, man-made diamonds were 40% cheaper than natural diamonds, then 60% cheaper, 70% to 80% cheaper in 2023, and even 99% in the future.
Some analysts believe that at present, Henan's synthetic diamond industry still has problems such as insufficient product refinement and overcapacity of medium and low products.
In the field of synthetic diamond, there are currently two technical routes: chemical vapor deposition method and high temperature and high pressure method, and there are voices in the industry that high temperature and high pressure method may be replaced by chemical vapor deposition method in a few years. Whether it is Zhecheng or the whole Henan synthetic diamond industry, most of them use the high temperature and high pressure method. This is considered to be a challenge that Zhecheng and the entire Henan synthetic diamond industry need to face in the future.
However, some industry experts predict that in the next few years, the outlook for the synthetic diamond industry, whether it is lab-grown diamonds used in jewelry or industrial diamonds, is relatively optimistic. According to Wan Zhe, a professor at Beijing Normal University and former chief economist of China Gold Group, diamonds still have a certain influence and appeal in the marriage market. As a result, man-made diamonds may become a more affordable alternative.
At present, Henan Zhecheng is also seeking innovation in the diamond industry. During the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon, the "diamond painting" with the theme of the Spring Festival designed and produced by Zhecheng Huacan E-commerce Co., Ltd. was favored in the overseas market, and foreign trade orders surged.
The diamond painting series products were very popular once they were listed. At present, the company's "diamond painting" orders for the "dragon" element have reached 100,000 orders, and the product construction period has been scheduled to May this year, and the products will be sent from Zhecheng County to customers in Russia, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and other places.
On February 5, 2024, Zhecheng Lab-grown Diamond Trading Center was established to help online and offline sales of lab-grown diamonds, enhance the influence of Zhecheng as the "diamond capital of China", and let more diamonds go from Zhecheng to the world.
In the future, Zhecheng County will continue to make efforts to the downstream of the industry, focusing on the development of lab-grown diamonds and diamond products, supporting enterprise technological innovation and product development, and promoting the application of diamond in semiconductors, medical and aerospace fields, so as to realize the transformation of the superhard material industry to the middle and high-end.
Source: The country is a through train
Editor: Zhuge Ruixin
Editor-in-charge: Wei Xi