Brief talk on the present situation of artificial diamond industry

The "king of materials" diamond, due to its excellent physical properties, has been continuously explored and extended in application fields for decades. As a substitute for natural diamond, artificial diamond has been used in fields ranging from machining tools and drills to ultra-wide band gap semiconductors, from laser and guided weapons to shining diamond rings in women's hands. Artificial diamond has become an indispensable part of industry and jewelry industry.

A.Basic Information

Synthetic diamond is a kind of diamond crystal synthesized by scientific method through artificial simulation of crystal condition and growth environment of natural diamond. There are two commercially available methods for mass production of diamonds -- high temperature and high pressure (HTHP) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD). By HPHT or CVD technology, artificial diamond can be produced in just a few weeks, and the chemical composition, refractive index, relative density, dispersion, hardness, thermal conductivity, thermal expansion, light transmission, resistance and compressibility of natural diamond are exactly the same. High grade synthetic diamonds are also known as cultivated diamonds.
The comparison of the two preparation methods is as follows:

Type	Project	HPHT high temperature and pressure method	CVD chemical vapor deposition method
Synthetic technique	Main raw material	Graphite powder, metal catalyst powder	Carbon-containing gas, hydrogen
	Production equipment	6-surface diamond presser	CVD Depositional equipment
	Synthetic environment	High-temperature and high-pressure environment	High-temperature and high-pressure environment
Cultivate the main characteristics of diamonds	Product shape	Granular, structure cubic octahedron, 14	Sheet, structural cube, 1 growth direction
	Growth cycle	Short	Long
	Cost	Low	High
	Degree of purity	Slightly worse	High
	Suitable product	1 ~5ct to grow diamonds	Grow diamonds above 5ct
Technology application	Application degree	The technology is mature, the domestic application is wide and has obvious advantage in the world	The foreign technology is relatively mature, but the domestic technology is still in the research stage, and the application results are few

China's artificial diamond industry started late, but the industry development speed is fast. At present, the technological content, carats and price of artificial diamond manufacturing equipment in China have competitive advantages in the world. Artificial diamond has the same excellent properties as natural diamond, such as super hard, wear resistance and corrosion resistance. It is an advanced inorganic non-metallic material of high efficiency, high precision, semi-permanent and environmental protection. It is the core consumable for the production of processing tools for sawing, cutting, grinding and drilling of high hard and brittle materials. Terminal applications are widely covered in aerospace and military industry, building materials, stone, exploration and mining, mechanical processing, clean energy, consumer electronics, semiconductor and other industries. At present, the main large-scale application of high quality artificial diamond, namely cultivated diamond, is in the jewelry industry.

Missile seeker window	Diamond drill bit for petroleum exploration
Diamond saw blade	Diamond tool
Industrial application of artificial diamond

The production conditions of natural diamonds are very harsh, so the scarcity is significant, the price is high all year round, and the price of cultivated diamonds is much lower than that of natural diamonds. According to the "Global Diamond Industry 2020-21" released by Bain Consulting, the retail/wholesale price of cultivated diamonds has been falling since 2017. In the fourth quarter of 2020, the retail price of lab-cultivated diamonds is about 35% of that of natural diamonds, and the wholesale price is about 20% of that of natural diamonds. It is expected that with the gradual optimization of technical costs, The future market price advantage of cultivating diamonds will be more obvious.

Cultivation diamond price accounted for natural diamond percentage

B. The industrial chain

Artificial diamond industry chain

The upstream of synthetic diamond industry chain refers to the supply of raw materials such as production equipment and technical catalyst, as well as the production of synthetic diamond rough drill. China is the main producer of HPHT diamond, and CVD artificial diamond production is also developing rapidly. An industrial cluster has been formed in Henan Province by upstream producers of artificial diamond, including Zhengzhou Huacheng Diamond Co., LTD., Zhongnan Diamond Co., LTD., Henan Huanghe Cyclone Co., LTD., etc. These enterprises have successfully developed and produced large particle and high purity artificial diamond (cultivated diamond). The upstream enterprises master the core production technology of rough diamond, with strong capital, and the wholesale price of synthetic diamond rough is stable, and the profit is relatively rich.
The middle part refers to the trade and processing of synthetic diamond blank, the trade of synthetic diamond finished drill, and the design and Mosaic. Small diamonds less than 1 carat are mostly cut in India, while large carats such as 3, 5, 10 or special-shaped diamonds are mostly cut in the United States. China is now emerging as the world's largest cutting centre, with Chow Tai Fook building a 5, 000-person cutting plant in Panyu.
Downstream mainly refers to the terminal retail of artificial diamond, marketing and other supporting industries. Industrial grade artificial diamond is mainly used in aerospace, mechanical processing and manufacturing, petroleum exploration and other industries. Most of the high quality artificial diamonds are sold to the jewelry industry as jewelry grade cultivated diamonds. At present, the United States has the world's most mature market for diamond cultivation and development, with a relatively complete sales chain.

C. Market conditions

In the early years, the unit price of artificial diamond was as high as 20 ~ 30 yuan per carat, which made many new manufacturing enterprises prohibitive. With the development of production technology, the price of artificial diamond gradually decreased, and in recent years, the price has dropped to less than 1 yuan per carat. With the development of aerospace and military industry, photovoltaic silicon wafers, semiconductors, electronic information and other emerging industries, the application of artificial diamond in the high-end manufacturing field is constantly expanding.
At the same time, due to the impact of environmental policies, the industry market size (in terms of artificial diamond production) has shown a trend of first decline and then increase in the past five years, soaring to 14.65 billion carats in 2018 and is expected to reach 15.42 billion carats in 2023. Specific changes are as follows:

The main production method in China is the HTHP method. The installed capacity of the six-sided push press directly determines the production capacity of artificial diamond, including the cultivated diamond. Through various understanding of the project research team, the existing capacity of the country is not more than 8,000 of the latest type of six-sided top press, while the overall market demand is about 20,000 of the latest type of six-sided top press. At present, the annual installation and commissioning of several major domestic diamond manufacturers has reached a stable capacity of about 500 new units, far from meeting the market demand, so in the short and medium term, the domestic cultivation of diamond industry seller market effect is significant.