Xinhua photo coverage, carried by Huanqiu.com, shows Weichang Manchu and Mongol Autonomous County building basalt fiber and semiconductor-grade diamond businesses on local basalt and silica sand.
Weichang Manchu and Mongol Autonomous County in Chengde, Hebei, is usually associated with hunting grounds and forest, but Chinese media have recently drawn attention to efforts to process its mineral resources on the spot and link them to a new-materials industry. Xinhua ran a photo report on Oct. 17 and Huanqiu.com carried it. The key resources named are basalt and silica sand.
광고 문의 · 300×250‘Local conversion’ means raising value added at home rather than simply extracting raw stone and shipping it out. In Xinhua’s captions, workers at a basalt fiber manufacturer check the quality of basalt fiber cloth and yarn. Basalt fiber is drawn from molten volcanic rock, and the report says it is used in fire-resistant materials and transport equipment, among other areas.
A second strand is synthetic diamond material. The captions show a worker operating a laser cutting machine at a diamond producer and another checking vapor-deposition equipment. The report says semiconductor-grade diamond has potential in new-energy vehicles, aerospace and precision manufacturing. How the raw materials are sourced was not confirmed.
The coverage gives no company names, output figures or investment totals. How large Weichang’s new-materials sector is, and what it contributes to jobs and tax revenue, cannot be judged from the available material and would need local government statistics or company disclosures.
As background, Hebei Province lists new materials among its priority industries. The shift of smaller counties from exporting resources to processing and manufacturing is a trend seen in many parts of China. Weichang is presented as one example, and its success will depend on market demand and technological competitiveness.
