Recently, the global output of rough natural diamonds has continued to decline, and the price of natural diamonds has increased significantly. According to industry data, the 1 carat diamond index rose 5.6% in February, up 12.9% from the beginning of the year. Major natural diamond producers such as De Beers have raised prices one after another.
In this case, the cultivation of diamonds has attracted more attention from the market. The so-called cultivated diamond, also known as artificial diamond, is a real diamond cultivated in the laboratory. Recently, how is the consumer market for cultivating diamonds? The reporter visited a number of diamond sales stores in Beijing.
cultivate diamond recognition and quickly increase the sales volume of a brand store by three times
In a cultivated diamond sales store in Wangfujing Group Co.Ltd(600859) commercial street in Beijing, the reporter saw necklaces, rings and other accessories made of cultivated diamonds. The spotlight above the shop shines on the diamond through the counter, emitting a glittering light.
Through naked eye observation, we can’t see any difference between it and natural diamond. It is the weekend afternoon. From time to time, customers walk into the store and ask about the style and price of jewelry.
Beijing Consumers: when choosing a ring, you should first see if it is suitable and good-looking, and then look at the price. The cultivation of diamonds is just at the beginning, and it is still in the initial stage.
Beijing Consumers: its brightness is similar to that of natural diamonds. If I can’t distinguish it, it has high cost performance and is more cost-effective.
According to insiders, natural diamonds grow under extreme high temperature and high pressure at a depth of 200 kilometers below the earth’s surface. They have bright light and hard characteristics, but they are expensive. Cultivated diamonds are diamonds cultivated in the laboratory, and heaven but diamonds have the same physical and chemical properties , but the price is only about one third of the price of natural diamonds .
Xu Guoliang is a partner of a diamond brand. When the reporter came to the store, Xu Guoliang was introducing the technological process of cultivating diamonds to the guests. According to Xu Guoliang, a few years ago, most consumers in stores didn’t know about cultivating diamonds and even thought that cultivating diamonds were fake diamonds . In the past two years, more and more people know and buy cultivated diamonds. Xu Guoliang and several other partners plan to open more stores.
Xu Guoliang, partner of a diamond brand cultivation: because of the price advantage, it can help young people realize their dream. More people know about diamond cultivation and have stronger acceptance of diamond cultivation.
According to the statistics of Bain, a consulting company, the market penetration of cultivated diamonds has increased rapidly in recent years. From 2020 to 2021, the global cultivated drilling penetration rate will increase from 5.9% to 8%, and it is expected that the global cultivated drilling penetration rate will reach 15.8% by 2025; China’s cultivated drilling permeability will increase from 4% to 6.7% from 2020 to 2021, it is estimated that China’s cultivated drilling permeability will reach 13.8% by 2025 .
A person in charge of cultivating diamond brand sales told reporters that with the improvement of consumers’ awareness of cultivating diamonds and the upgrading of consumption habits, the sales volume of cultivating diamonds in China’s consumer market, especially in first tier cities, has increased rapidly.
Li Yang, general manager of a diamond brand in Greater China: compared with January and February of the same period in 2021 last year, both online sales and offline store sales increased significantly, and some stores even achieved a growth rate of 300%.
diamond cultivation company: orders are full in the next six months, and the products are seriously in short supply
The reporter learned that in the field of diamond cultivation, China’s production capacity accounts for about 50% of the total global diamond cultivation production capacity, of which 80% is located in Henan. So what about the production of diamonds upstream? What about the revenue of relevant listed companies?
In Shangqiu, Henan Province, the reporter came to an enterprise specializing in the production of superhard materials. At present, this enterprise mainly produces industrial diamonds and cultivated diamonds. In the production workshop, the reporter saw a six sided hydraulic press running, these six sided hydraulic presses can simulate the growth environment and crystallization conditions of natural diamonds .
It is understood that the raw material for cultivating diamonds is graphite, which is grown under high temperature and high pressure after adding catalyst . At this time, the last round of production cultivation has just ended, and the production workers are inspecting the equipment, and then put the graphite synthetic block into the next round of production cultivation. Recently, with the large increase of downstream orders, workshop has gradually increased the capacity arrangement for diamond cultivation .
Zhang Cunsheng, chief engineer of a listed company for cultivating diamonds: now the equipment we see is a six sided top hydraulic press, which can be used to produce industrial diamonds and cultivated diamonds the proportion of diamond cultivation equipment has increased from 30% last year to more than 60% this year . The single machine capacity for cultivating diamonds increased by more than 30% year-on-year.
According to skilled workers, at present, the single cultivated diamond produced by these machines can reach 10-20 carats, and its physical and chemical properties are exactly the same as those of natural diamonds. The cultivation cycle only takes about three weeks . Subsequently, in the office of the enterprise, the reporter met Zhou Zhihua, head of the marketing department, who was sorting out recent orders. He told reporters that the production of diamonds cultivated by enterprises has been in short supply recently, and the orders for the next six months have been signed .
Zhou Zhihua, director of marketing department of a listed company cultivating diamonds: all orders in the next six months have been signed and the deposit has been received. Now we no longer develop new customers and accept new orders. Now there are many customers who sign contracts with us. At present, the sales of cultivated diamonds is seriously in short supply.
Subsequently, the reporter came to a diamond processing enterprise in Shangqiu City, Henan Province. Here, the reporter saw that the skilled workers graded the delivered rough diamonds according to the standards of cleanliness and size, determined the suitable cutting shape through manual marking and machine marking, then cut, polish and clean the rough diamonds, and finally obtained bright bare diamonds one by one.
The general manager of the processing enterprise told reporters that factory can produce about 100 carats of naked diamonds . This year, the factory will expand its production scale. In the near future, it plans to recruit about 80 people to join the diamond grinding process.
The data show that the performance of listed companies related to cultivating diamonds in 2021 is good Henan Liliang Diamond Co.Ltd(301071) 2021 net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies increased by 228.17% year on year Henan Huanghe Whirlwind Co.Ltd(600172) it is expected to turn losses into profits in 2021 and realize a net profit of 41 million yuan North Industries Group Red Arrow Co.Ltd(000519) it is estimated that the net profit attributable to the parent company will increase by 63.90% – 78.47% year-on-year.
China Securities Co.Ltd(601066) Ye Le, chief analyst of light industrial textile clothing: the biggest competitive advantage of cultivating diamonds is price. In terms of product quality, cultivating diamonds is no less than this natural diamond. Whether diamonds can rise in China in the future depends mainly on the promotion of brands and the guidance of consumers’ cognition.
