Cultivate the future of the diamond industry - new categories, new designs, new futures
Foreword
From 2018, De Beers suddenly launched a diamond product in the jewelry industry. It has caused a great uproar in the whole industry. The hot topic has been discussed until now, and its far-reaching influence is mainly reflected in a relatively stable system. A weight of unknown weight, and the true weight of the weight is entirely determined by the operation of the business, the perception of people and the development of technology. Like Pandora's Box, once opened, no one can say what will happen.
To analyze an industry similar to Pandora's Box, there is no institution that can fully explain it, and it is impossible to accurately predict its future. The author is also based on years of industry experience, taking this article as a positive direction for its future development. Do a discussion on the direction, attracting more and more people to work together, and pushing the industry to a healthy development path from all aspects.
background analysis
Why is the cultivation of the diamond industry such a high heat in the jewelry industry? The key reason is that the largest raw material producer of this variety is in China. As the world's largest producer of diamond blanks, China has the resources to be dozens of times larger than the total reserves of all natural diamonds in the world. In this category, it has broken the high monopoly of foreign institutions in the natural diamond industry chain. The pattern, gradual maturity of the diamond market will change the pattern of the world jewelry market has become the consensus of some well-known forecasting institutions at home and abroad.
First, we briefly review the origin of the industry and cultivate the foundation of the diamond industry – the superhard material industry. Since the United States first synthesized single crystal diamond raw materials in the 1950s, China also synthesized the same product in 1963. Since synthetic diamonds have important applications in aerospace, highway and railway, electronic power, stone construction, mechanical energy, optical medicine and other national basic industries, all powerful countries have invested a lot of resources in research and development and production.
China's synthetic diamond industry is mainly concentrated in Henan, mainly due to the important technical support unit of the superhard materials industry: Henan Zhengzhou Abrasives Grinding Research Institute (commonly known as "Sanma Research Institute"). The Institute's technology has developed the world's three largest synthetic diamond powder materials manufacturers, including the Yellow River Cyclone, Zhongnan Diamond, and Zhengzhou Huajing. The output and output value are the absolute leading in the global industry. However, although this industry seems to be very large, due to the relatively single industry, low profit margins, insufficient investment in research and development, and long-term development cycles of new products, there has been no successful enterprise that has broken through the transformation.
In the field of high-hardness industrial diamonds, such as micro-particle screening, wafer wire saws in the photovoltaic industry, ultra-precision tools for teaching and manufacturing, optical, radar, gyroscopes and other cutting tools in the military industry, China has been Backward, because the supporting industry base is still weak, it will take time to catch up, so the industry has been expecting a new breakthrough in fast-cutting high-end applications. Until De Beers announced that it had entered the synthetic diamonds last year to create a new market for cultivating diamond jewelry, it also opened a new breakthrough in China's cultivation of diamonds as an industrial superhard material industry. Based on the low-end synthetic diamond production capacity, the use of a new generation of synthetic technology to extend the synthesis of large particles, high-quality synthetic diamonds to the high-end jewelry industry, has become another major direction of the industry giant.
(Professional background knowledge supplement: Synthetic diamond generally refers to industrial grade diamond powder, which can be used directly in industrial applications; synthetic diamonds generally refer to large-grain, single-crystal artificial diamonds; cultivating diamonds refer to gem-quality standards. Synthetic diamonds, a new term for consensus in the industry for the broad segmentation of synthetic diamonds. Synthetic rather than artificial, here continues a national naming standard for the jewelry identification industry, that is, no output to nature. Gemstones are artificial, such as artificial garnet garnet, artificial barium titanate, and natural synthetic output, such as synthetic ruby, synthetic emerald, etc. There are only a few exceptions, such as glass, most of which are artificially produced. Therefore, it is simply called glass, while the natural world needs to be crowned with natural glass. The same is true for pearls. Most of them are artificially cultured, while non-cultured pearls are divided by natural ones.)
The birth of this new jewellery category means that from the manufacturing equipment, production and processing of the source blanks to the processing and sales of the finished products, all links and supporting services of the industrial chain are needed to support them. However, unlike the path of the new category of jewellery industry in the industry, there is a huge-scale mature industrial chain operation system of natural diamonds. In essence, it is almost exactly the same product to cultivate diamonds and natural diamonds. From the road of the development of the jewelry industry, there are considerable variables before the industry and the society give it a clear positioning. This is one of the reasons why many jewellery companies pay great attention to cultivating diamonds, but few companies invest heavily.
Breaking
Cultivating diamonds as a new jewellery category is moving towards the consumer market, the most critical of which is market positioning. Market positioning depends on the economic environment, the consumer population, and the willingness to consume. Generally speaking, it is how to meet the consumption needs of specific groups in a specific region.
Combining the social development trends related to the future jewelry industry:
1) Economic environment: China's economic growth has slowed down, but under the background of the Belt and Road and Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao and Dawan districts, there is still a cumulative effect of wealth; the global economy is slowly recovering under the leadership of China's Belt and Road and building a community of human destiny. The European and American markets have rebounded strongly and are all industrial opportunities; products are in line with the international market, and shifting from an inward-oriented industry to a globalized operation is an important threshold for a new step;
2) Consumers: The differentiation of consumer groups and regions is increasingly obvious; in addition to the traditional people's pursuit of jewelry, the three major categories of love, security, wealth, with the rise of new consumer groups after the 90s, personalized, characterized niche Jewelry is also developing rapidly; another big brand of jewelry sinking in the third, fourth and fifth tier cities will also drive a new round of jewelry consumption;
3) Consumer willingness: Consumer willingness is closely related to the structure and purpose of the consumer group. The differentiation of future jewellery consumption motives will lead to low-end jewellery and high-end jewellery; medium and low-end jewellery meets the cultural pursuit of ordinary consumers. High-end jewelry will have more financial attributes to meet the asset allocation needs of high-end consumption;
Therefore, through the above conditions, the most suitable positioning for the development of the diamond industry is: to meet the needs of the new consumer groups, to meet the needs of millennials small and sophisticated personalized accessories, to carry out global output, in order to accurately seize the opportunity of the industry, Bigger and stronger.
According to the industry tracking and research of the year, the author analyzes and cultivates the diamond industry and will experience two stages of development. The first is the stage of primitive accumulation and industrial expansion; the second is the stage of coordinated development of branded industrial clusters.
Let me talk about the first stage, which is characterized by market chaotic competition and supply chain resource allocation adjustment. At present, the cultivation of the diamond market has just started, and the strength of the various forces has led to the emergence of a strong business opportunity. As a new category different from natural diamonds, cultivating diamonds is destined to occupy a seat in the future industry from the day of its birth. Each of the masters will inevitably have to transfer to this new track to challenge the peak again. One of the easiest and most direct ways to realize this is to use the existing diamond market to complete the accumulation of the original capital of the industry.
After all, natural diamonds are already a huge market with immense maturity. Simply put, we use the absolute cost advantage of cultivating diamonds to cut a portion of the natural diamond market. This method is simple, rude and effective, because the cultivation of diamonds is completely consistent with natural diamonds in terms of appearance, composition and basic properties. At present, only a few professional testing institutions can accurately distinguish them by means of a variety of large-scale optical instruments. The naked eye + magnifying glass mode, the effective distinction between the two is less than 20%, and this ratio will continue to decline with the continuous improvement of synthetic technology.
This targeted consumer group is also very clear, to meet the vanity of getting bigger and better diamonds at a lower price, so the diamond market will be mixed at this stage, using natural diamonds and cultivating diamonds and their similar characteristics, confused The boundary of the people, which quickly gains profits in the terminal market, is called market chaotic competition. There is no deliberate and strict distinction between producers, processors and sellers. Market cognition education mainly highlights the attributes of diamonds. The products show most of the same routines of natural diamonds familiar to consumer terminals. Even the name of the diamonds is also cultivated. It has not been formally recognized by the national market supervision and management system and is still in the blank of market supervision.
Therefore, the supply chain resource allocation at this stage will only be inclined to fast, stable and low-cost channels. For example, the supply of HPHT (high temperature and ultra high pressure) equipment is still much larger than that of CVD (chemical vapor deposition) equipment, seeding and blank cutting, etc. These do not bring about industrial upgrading, but they can gradually accumulate funds, technology and industrial collaboration clusters for the next phase.
The duration of the first phase will not last too long. After all, the cakes of natural diamonds will only be countered by the traditional industry giants, and the unclear market positioning is not conducive to the promotion and expansion of the industry, and even attracts the strict supervision of the market. It is very difficult to correct consumption perceptions when supervision and investigation and attack on irregular behaviors have a profound negative impact on cultivating diamonds. Therefore, people of insight have begun to unify the direction of the development of the industry, coupled with the gradual recovery of domestic and international economy and the cultivation of a new generation of consumer concepts, combined with the strategic deployment of foreign giants and the trend of industry resources, this time should be in the first Between 3 years, you will move on to the next stage.
The second stage, the coordinated development stage of branded industrial clusters, is the stage in which China's diamond industry is taking off. The following is a key analysis of how this future road should be grasped and where it should go.
In fact, there are huge differences in the original form of natural diamonds and cultivated diamonds, which can be easily distinguished by appearance (see the figure below), and the core of determining the market differentiation of the two is scarcity.
Before the birth of diamonds, natural diamonds created extremely scarce supply in the market due to their extremely harsh environment, high mining cost and high monopoly mechanism. Together with the powerful marketing power and strong financial strength of international giants, Diamonds have become the most profitable business in the jewelry industry for some time. The shape, size and value of diamond products are all around the article about their scarcity.
According to the maximum amount of octahedral output of natural diamonds and the direction of cleavage (ie, the direction of boring), the maximum weight retention, people have been studying for hundreds of years, on this basis with modern fifty-six cuts to display diamonds The sparkle and fire make the best balance between scarce natural diamond resources and beauty.
Since the birth of diamonds, it has been a non-scarce material that can be industrially produced in large quantities with a completely different appearance from natural diamonds. HPHT blanks are the superimposed shape of regular octahedrons and cubes (professional term for polymorphism). CVD blanks are simple flakes with distinct growth characteristics, so only by changing the previous perception of the scarcity of natural diamonds can we truly break through scarcity. The resulting shape constraints allow the cultivation of diamonds to be inserted into the wings of imagination.
This wing is the design. In the new generation of retail and new consumption, the value will become an important weapon for consumers to enjoy. The design will break through the previous framework and show it in front of consumers in a new way. Good design can make the product emotional. The expression is more direct, image, and more representative of the inherent needs of a new generation of consumers.
Nowadays, the industrial 4.0 upgrade of the jewelry industry is in full swing. The cultivation of diamonds combined with the upgraded 3D printing technology will bring tremendous energy to the industry, making the design concept, design method and design style of the diamonds different from traditional jewelry. The old model will be closer to the needs of the younger generation of consumers, thus showing a dazzling light in the future development of the jewelry industry.
Once we are out of the basic principle of taking care of natural diamonds, we can produce and process diamonds into any shape we want, such as the “Red†ring directly processed by Diamond Foundry, which is produced by foreign Diamond Foundry. Manufacturers produce and process diamond piglets.
The above are directly processed by the characteristics of cultivating the non-scarce of diamonds and the appearance of the blanks, so once the scare of the designer's scarce is broken, the wings of imagination can be colorful. At present, the new synthetic method has matured, and the seed crystal (or seed crystal) for cultivating diamond growth is directly processed into a desired shape by a precision laser or a water jet, and can be shaped according to a predetermined shape during the growth of the diamond. The difficulty of seeding will be much lower than the difficulty of processing blanks, and with the ever-changing automatic diamond cutting technology, the overall production cost of cultivating diamonds will be further reduced until industrialized mass production.
At the same time, according to different IP, such as Chinese Zodiac, American Disney cartoon image, etc., combined with excellent traditional crafts, such as enamel craft, ancient gold craft, etc., make products completely different from natural diamonds. The national brand of “China Diamond • Made in Chinaâ€, the international market uses the industry formed by the Belt and Road to play the “local IP + destiny community†brand to meet the broader global consumer demand, so that it will truly usher in the diamond industry in China. Spring.
challenge
The future of nurturing the diamond industry also depends on the matching of third-party services and how to integrate with the upgrading of the jewelry industry, including the following challenges:
The first is the confirmation of the status of the diamond market by the industry regulators. This confirmation represents that the consumer can endure the new thing of cultivating diamonds with a strong government credit endorsement. To be supervised, there must be rules, that is, relevant standards and industry associations, but the industry association platform is still in preparation, and the relevant standards for cultivating diamonds only remain at the level of corporate standards and group standards, and should be upgraded to local standards and industries. At the level of standards and even national standards, it is necessary for all parties in the industry, especially the state-owned jewelry testing institutions and enterprises and institutions that undertake specific operations, to make unremitting and active efforts;
Secondly, the diamond cutting and processing of diamonds is mostly controlled by Indian companies. Domestic companies have developed smarter and simple diamond automatic cutting technology to effectively reduce the processing cost, but also need to invest a lot of Resources for research and development. Therefore, the most feasible method at present is that the producer, the processing party, and the design party form a joint economy (partnership enterprise), jointly invest, research and development according to market needs, research and development results apply for inventions, utility models or appearance patents, and then share patents and common Benefit from. At the same time, we will move closer to high-tech enterprises, use the national industrial support policies, continue to grow bigger and stronger, and completely break the wishful thinking of using foreign domestic short-boards to make profits from China.
The third point is that capital has to be mentioned. If there is no capital awareness in the financial era, I am afraid it will be difficult to go quickly and go for a long time. In the early stage of industrial development, it is necessary to learn to attract capital, guide capital, make good use of capital, and make good use of the resources behind capital, especially for some large state-owned enterprises that have already been listed. Capital has become a leading force that cannot be ignored in industrial development, and the industry is completed with the help of capital. Transformation and upgrading, from Chinese manufacturing to Chinese creation, can stand out in the fierce competition in the international market;
The fourth point is to cultivate how the development of the diamond industry can be integrated with the upgrading of the entire jewelry industry. In the future trend of on-demand supply, intelligent manufacturing, collaborative production, and big data marketing, how can the industry's big data and demand match smarter services? In the industry, more high-tech means are needed, and the integrated information system for production, marketing and inspection will gradually emerge. In the absence of high-tech talents in the industry, how to attract high-tech talents for information construction is also indispensable. problem.
Conclusion
The cultivation of the diamond industry is just a new branch in the jewelry industry. Most of the people engaged in the jewellery industry are from the original superhard material industry diamond industry. The people who are engaged in natural diamonds in the jewelry industry recognize the diamonds. Knowing also stays on "CVD" or "fake". With the frequent efforts of the international cultivation of the diamond industry, more and more international big brands have also opened up the cultivating diamond series as the second battlefield, and will soon usher in the peak period of the first stage of development. By living in this wave of opportunities, you will be able to accumulate enough funds, technology, and talents to achieve a transition from following to leading roles and ushered in a true light on the road to a global future.
Micro Granular Fertilizer
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