On April 12, international spot gold and futures gold hit a record high, and COMEX gold stood above the integer mark of $2,400 per ounce.
In the A-share market, gold concept stocks are active again, and Laishen Tongling has blocked the daily limit and walked out of the 9-board market. When one person attains the Tao, the chicken and dog ascend to heaven. Driven by gold stocks, conceptual sectors such as jewelry and lab-grown diamonds also ushered in a positive market.
According to the survey, lab-grown diamonds, as a rookie in the jewelry industry, are in a period of rapid growth, and the agency predicts that the domestic compound growth rate is expected to reach 35% by 2025, and China may become the largest potential market. In addition, lab-grown diamonds have attracted a lot of attention for their environmental characteristics and excellent performance.
Lab-grown diamonds have a bright future
Lab-grown diamonds, as an emerging choice for diamond consumption, have obvious advantages in quality, cost, environmental protection and technology, and have broad market prospects.
In May 2018, De Beers announced that it would sell lab-grown diamonds through its Lightbox Jewelry brand
Business. In July of the same year, Swarovski realigned its lab-grown diamond brand, Diama, from the gemstone division to the luxury division. In December 2019, SIGNET, the largest diamond jewelry retailer in the United States, also announced the sale of lab-grown diamond jewelry under its famous brands such as Kay, Jared, Zales, James Allen, and others.
With the continuous improvement of synthetic technology, the change of market consumption concept and consumption habits, the market attention and market demand of domestic lab-grown diamonds have also increased significantly, and synthetic diamond production enterprises represented by Zhongnan Diamond, Yellow River Cyclone and other companies have invested in the research and development and production of lab-grown diamonds on the basis of realizing the accumulation and improvement of technology in the industrial field.
Taking Power Diamond, a leading enterprise in the lab-grown diamond industry, as an example, its lab-grown diamond production capacity increased from 128,800 carats in 2019 to 333,300 carats in 2021, with an annualized compound growth rate of 60.86%, and its lab-grown diamond production capacity in 2022 was undisclosed, with a sales volume of 834,400 carats.
In the coming years, the Chinese market is an important producer of lab-grown diamonds, and the capacity expansion of the lab-grown diamond industry will continue. According to Statista's forecast, from 2023 to 2025, the size of China's lab-grown diamond rough diamond market will increase from 2.55 million carats to 4 million carats, with a compound annual growth rate of 25.24%.
It is worth noting that the structural characteristics of diamond lattice make it a superior property that other materials cannot match
Extreme functional materials, with high hardness, high thermal conductivity, high refractive index, high chemical stability and other characteristics.
At present, there are two manufacturing methods for lab-grown diamonds, one is the HTHP method and the other is the CVD method. Among them, the HTHP method can also be used to produce industrial diamonds, and the processes used in the production process are different, but the equipment presses used are basically the same. The diamond single crystal produced by the CVD method can be used in the manufacturing of functional products such as chips, sensors, high-power laser devices and extreme environment detectors.
During the convening of the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress, lab-grown diamonds attracted wide attention due to their environmental protection characteristics and excellent performance, and also became the focus of suggestions and suggestions from the deputies and members.
In order to better promote the high-quality development of the lab-grown diamond industry and effectively boost the terminal demand of the lab-grown diamond industry, Lu Jin, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of China Gold Group Co., Ltd., put forward three suggestions:
First, it is recommended that relevant departments take the lead in promoting key technology research in the field of superhard materials; second, promote the establishment of industry organizations such as lab-grown diamond industry associations, strengthen mutual cooperation and joint supervision of enterprises in the industry, and enhance the discourse power of the mainland lab-grown diamond industry in international competition; third, it is recommended to strengthen industrial policy guidance to facilitate the integration of industrial chain resources for enterprises in the industry. At the same time, we will further strengthen the brand building of lab-grown diamonds and promote the development of the lab-grown diamond consumer market.
A number of listed companies have accelerated their layout
Flush data shows that there are currently 15 concept stocks in the A-share lab-grown diamond sector. On April 12, the lab-grown diamond plate moved, the 20CM daily limit of Mancaron, Huifeng Diamond rose by more than 7%, and the Yellow River Whirlwind, Sifangda, Chaohongji, Zhongbing Red Arrow, and National Machinery Seiko followed suit.
Among them, Zhongbing Red Arrow, Yellow River Whirlwind, and Power Diamond, three leading suppliers in the industry, have supplied more than 75% of the rough diamonds in the mainland. Relying on the sale of man-made diamonds, suppliers once became the "sweet spots" of the capital market.
However, with the increase of industry competitors, the increase in penetration, and the slowdown in industry demand, the share prices of Zhongbing Red Arrow, Yellow River Whirlwind, and Power Diamond all reached stage highs in August 2022 and pulled back at a high level.
Nowadays, more and more lab-grown diamond companies are turning their attention to the manufacture of industrial diamonds and functional products, and many companies have been producing synthetic diamonds for industrial use for a long time, so the production capacity can be converted between industrial diamonds and lab-grown diamonds.
Sifangda is mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of superhard materials and related products, the company's main products have three categories: composite superhard material products used in the field of resource exploitation/engineering construction, composite superhard material products and CVD diamond used in the field of precision machining.
In 2023, Sifangda will increase its R&D and management support for its holding subsidiary, Tianxuan Semiconductor, and its self-developed MPCVD equipment and CVD diamond process have been verified in batches. The company's annual output of 700,000 carats of functional diamond industrialization project will all use self-developed MPCVD equipment and CVD diamond process, the company is actively coordinating the efforts of all parties to comprehensively promote the construction of the project, has entered the final sprint stage of the plant renovation project, and is expected to start commissioning and production in the first half of 2024.
As for the development prospects of the product market, Sifangda said that CVD diamond as a whole has a larger market space, and will accelerate the construction and operation of production lines in the short term, focus on large-carat lab-grown diamonds and overseas markets to achieve performance contribution, and continue to increase the research and development of MPCVD equipment and functional diamonds.
Jingsheng Electromechanical is mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of photovoltaic equipment, semiconductor equipment and LED substrate materials. According to the official WeChat news, after more than half a year of process testing, the fully automatic MPCVD method growth diamond equipment (model XJL200A) has successfully grown high-quality gem-quality diamond crystals.
The XJL200A diamond growth furnace has successfully solved the industry pain points of the traditional MPCVD lab-grown diamond growth technology: the judgment of defects such as polycrystalline and growth cracks, and the control of key growth parameters such as crystal temperature and growth thickness all rely on manual judgment, overcoming the bottleneck of quality control and large-scale production in the current process of lab-grown diamonds.
SINOMACH's main business is R&D and manufacturing, industry services and technical consulting, trade services and so on in the bearing industry, abrasives industry and related fields. On April 11, SINOMACH Seiko disclosed the prospectus (revised draft) for the issuance of A-shares to specific targets. The total amount of funds raised in this issuance shall not exceed 284 million yuan (inclusive), which is intended to be used for the following purposes after deducting the issuance costs: new high-power MPCVD large single crystal diamond project (phase II) and supplementing the liquidity of listed companies.