ZHENGZHOU/BRUSSELS, Feb. 6 -- A diamond is forever but its chemical composition is just carbon, the fourth most abundant element in the universe.

Before being cut and polished to what may cost over 2,000 U.S. dollars per carat -- one-fifth of a gram, or the weight of two grains of rice, diamonds have traditionally been mined from earth where they were forged in extreme pressure and heat over millennia.

But companies in China and elsewhere have mastered the technologies to manufacture them en masse in a matter of weeks or days, with the products practically indistinguishable from those mined from earth.

China, long a major consumer of mined diamonds, now has a realistic chance to become a supplier of man-made ones and shape the industry, analysts said, but the scenario for substitution -- when consumers become indifferent to provenance -- is far from certain and depends on public perception.

OVER ONE MILLION CARATS, FROM ONE FACTORY

By Chinese industry estimates, the country has been producing well over 10 billion carats of diamond annually for almost a decade, but most of the products have gone to industrial use such as in abrasives.

Before foraying into consumer use, Chinese manufacturers provided them for aeronautics, oil rigs and electronic chips and honed their craft, said Hu Junheng, head of gemstone business at Henan Huanghe Whirlwind, which calls itself the world's largest synthetic diamond manufacturer with an annual production of 1.2 billion carats, mostly for industrial use.

【国内英语资讯:Xinhua Headlines: Made-in-China diamonds poised to shape global market】相关文章：

★ BBC应大胆创新

★ 欧盟盯上谷歌隐私政策

★ 刚果民主共和国东部前武装分子从咖啡中获得新生

★ 亚洲崛起动摇“美国治下的和平”

★ 审计纷争或引发赴美中概股退市潮

★ 希腊财长：明年将是“生死攸关”的一年

★ Lex专栏：太阳能产业的生机

★ 印度轮奸事件受害女子送往新加坡治疗

★ 宏碁明年拟推售价99美元的平板电脑

★ 中国要求俄罗斯解释炮击中国渔船一事