China's Superhard Material New Material Industries Facing New Challenges
On September 18, Trump administration announced a 10% tariff on $200 billion worth of China's imports. China's superhard materials and products industry, from raw materials to products, are all in the scope of tax levy. The new 10% tariff will take effect on September 24, 2018 and rise to 25% from January 1, 2019.
As is known to all, new materials, as the leading industry of national economy and the key ensurance for the development of high-end manufacturing and defense industries, are the focus of strategic competition in various countries. It can be seen from the developing and application courses of materials that every development of productivity is accompanied by the progress of materials. The discovery, invention, application and promotion of new materials are closely related to the technological revolution and industrial revolution.
As an important and unique part in the field of new materials, superhard materials play an important role in oil exploration and mining, high-end machine tools and automobile manufacturing, rail transit, nuclear power, national defense, military industry and aerospace, as well as photovoltaic and electronic information fields. Therefore, superhard materials have been widely used in national economic construction, and are indispensable advanced basic materials and high-function materials in strategic emerging industries.
It can be learned from the report of "Economical Operation of Superhard Materials in 2017" that China's superhard materials industry has already officially recovered from the downturn and began to grow in 2017 after experiencing the adjustment period of transformation and upgrading for several years. The exports of synthetic diamond, diamond saw blade and diamond grinding wheels have all achieved all-round growth, especially the export of synthetic diamond with great increase, with 32.7% increase of export volume and 42.7% increase of export value.
With the changes of international trade and macroeconomic environment in 2018, China's superhard materials industry is facing a new round of huge challenges. Superhard materials and products have been known as "Industrial Teeth" in industry and manufacturing, which is the indispensable. In addition, China's superhard material industry also have a certain competitive advantage in many ways after years of market competition. Therefore, the whole industry is cautiously optimistic in the face of this U.S. tariffs behavior. But for most of American customers, they said it has caused their costs to rise and they are suffering for that.