Numa Takes the First Step in Exporting Domestic Instruments with RMB Settlement

Joking aside, according to Castellum, an international sanctions tracking platform, as of March 11, Russia has faced 6,331 sanctions due to its military actions in Ukraine, far exceeding the previous records set by Iran at 3,616 and Syria at 2,608, making it the most sanctioned country in history. Particularly in the fields of semiconductor devices and microelectronics, Western companies no longer supply high-end equipment, instruments, chips, and design software to Russia. As a result, the development of some of Russia’s cutting-edge technology industries has come to a halt, and a large amount of talent and prior investments have been wasted.

From this series of sanctions imposed by Western countries, we see that “Science and technology are the primary productive forces”—this phrase is timeless, no matter the era. It is crucial to enhance our own research and development capabilities to have a voice in the international community.

In recent years, the surge in popularity of Huawei phones has sparked high attention to the localization of semiconductor chips, but few realize that the scientific instrument industry has also been monopolized by foreign countries. It is reported that over 90% of China’s scientific instruments are monopolized by foreign companies, with high-end instruments imported annually costing billions of dollars, second only to chips and oil. One can imagine, if China were to be the target of sanctions, it would not be cats and dogs that are sanctioned, but various high-end instruments and equipment. Without tools for scientific research, how could we talk about technological progress and development?

However, from the perspective of scientific instrument industry policies, the country has begun to pay great attention to the development of the scientific instrument industry. In the 14th Five-Year Plan, it has been highlighted that the development of scientific instruments will be a priority, and an increasing number of talents are being invested in product research and development. Many domestic instrument companies have independently developed hundreds of scientific instrument products.

After more than a decade of development, Newmai Analysis has independently developed multiple low-field nuclear magnetic resonance instruments that have broken the monopoly of foreign-imported equipment. These instruments have been successfully applied in energy, geotechnical, food agriculture, life sciences, materials, and education fields, and have been exported to countries such as South Korea, Turkey, Spain, the United States, and throughout Europe.

During the Russia-Ukraine conflict, many agents could not obtain the products they needed due to sanctions. Despite severe domestic pandemic conditions, Newmai overcame all difficulties to ensure production and supply to global enterprises in need. Especially in the food and agriculture sector, Newmai’s NMR-based seed oil content analyzer can help Russian companies detect both seed oil content and moisture content simultaneously, from sesame to olives. The NMR-based solid fat content analyzer, with a simple testing process, can help food manufacturers producing fat-based products understand various product characteristics from solid fat content in just 6 seconds. (Click on the image for more details.)

Desktop Pulsed NMR Solid Fat Content Analyzer

According to statistics from relevant media, the highest proportion of international foreign trade settlements is in US dollars, followed by euros, with the proportion of RMB settlements being even lower than the Japanese yen and British pounds. Western countries have imposed financial sanctions on Russia, excluding it from the SWIFT payment system, aiming to cut off Russia’s foreign trade. However, as reported by Sputnik News on April 5, Russia’s First Deputy Chairman of the International Affairs Committee of the Federation Council, Vladimir Dzhabarov, stated at the “Is Russia’s Future in Russia-China Cooperation?” conference that the RMB is a promising international currency. Russia is fully willing to use this tool for bilateral trade settlement. Therefore, cooperation with Russian enterprises will now adopt RMB settlement! This is a proud moment for both Newmai and all Chinese people, as we have finally realized RMB settlement in export trade! This signifies that China’s financial resource allocation ability in international markets is gradually strengthening, which is beneficial for changing the dollar-centric international monetary system and mitigating its flaws and negative impacts.

More and more technical talents are now tirelessly working to achieve the goal of “chip localization,” and we have seen some progress in recent years. However, R&D talent in the scientific instrument industry remains scarce compared to other industries, and societal attention has been low. How many years will it take before we can break free from the 90% import rate? 20 years or 50 years? More talent must be invested in this field; otherwise, the limitations imposed by instruments will be hard to overcome.

As a leading domestic brand in low-field NMR scientific instruments and equipment, Newmai Analysis is dedicated to making nuclear magnetic resonance applications accessible to every household. We aim to build a globally leading NMR brand, contributing to the scientific endeavors of our country and to the global presence of Chinese brands.