"Diamonds are forever, and one piece will last forever." This enduring slogan seems to be outdated now.
Man-made diamonds were born out of nowhere. With the "cabbage price" far lower than traditional diamonds, it punctured the "myth of sky-high prices" woven by diamond merchants for hundreds of years.
Relevant data show that in 2020, nearly half of the world's 7 million carats of artificial diamonds-Lab grown diamonds will be produced in China, of which 80% will be produced in Henan; Diamonds account for half of global production.
At present, the minimum price per carat of loose diamonds on the market is about 30,000 yuan, while the minimum price of Henan man-made diamonds of the same quality is about 8,000 yuan, a difference of nearly 4 times. Someone ridiculed: Thanks to Henan, all the people are one step closer to "diamond freedom".
In fact, not only man-made diamonds, but also caviar, a top ingredient that was once popular abroad, and LCD TVs, whose prices have plummeted this year, have already been reduced to "cabbage prices" by domestic technology. Seeing the big from the small, the continuous breakthrough of domestic technology is ending the "myth of sky-high prices" in many industries.
Technology monopoly writes "sky-high price myth"
The reason why diamonds are expensive is not so much "scarcity" as that they are "hoarded" by diamond merchants and their prices have been inflated.
A few decades ago, De Beers, the largest diamond company in the UK, tied diamonds and love together in order to sell diamonds. The slogan "Diamonds are forever, one piece will last forever" has written the most successful business story in human history.
According to the data, in order to maintain its monopoly position, De Beers bought the development right of the largest diamond mine in South Africa. And through artificial control, reduce the amount of diamond mining to maintain the "false scarcity". Until the 1980s, De Beers, which controlled more than 90% of the world's diamond supply, successfully grasped the pricing power. Under its control, the price of diamonds rose, and even sold for a sky-high price of 50,000 US dollars per carat at the highest point.
In fact, there are countless cases where technological monopoly brings super high premiums. At the beginning of the founding of our country, due to the urgent need for heavy dredgers for port construction, this technology has long been monopolized by Belgium, the Netherlands and other countries. Our country had no choice but to buy an obsolete second-hand dredger from the Netherlands with more than 4 tons of gold; 10 years ago, American scientists developed a youth enzyme that was said to prolong the healthy lifespan by 30%, but this molecule has long been used by Japan, The monopoly of the US laboratory, the price of the finished molecular agent once reached 1.5 million, became a "survival game for the rich".
Although the situation is grim, the above examples have also stimulated my country's determination to invest. Our country's scientific research team is catching up, trying to change the backward situation brought about by technological monopoly.
Domestic technology ushered in a turnaround?
When European and American companies monopolize the international diamond pricing power, the information about the large-scale mass production of artificial diamonds in Henan can be described as exciting. This credit is inseparable from the scientific research team of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In October 2019, the Chinese Academy of Sciences made a technological breakthrough in the field of diamond cultivation. "The Chinese Academy of Sciences has grown diamonds" quickly rushed to the second place in the hot search list, which aroused widespread attention from many media and netizens. The Chinese Academy of Sciences cultivated pure diamonds by improving the diamond process. Diamonds with higher hardness are only one-sixth of the original price. This technology has successfully helped Henan enterprises break through the long-standing problem of "low purity" of the original man-made diamonds.
Not only that, but the dredger that can only be exchanged for 4 tons of gold in the past has already been independently developed by our country. In the face of repeated purchase requests from Vietnam and Japan, our country made it clear: Sorry, this is the country's most important weapon, and it is only rented and not sold.
As for the above-mentioned youth enzyme, which was criticized as a "survival game for the rich", Chinese scientists also successfully localized the molecular raw material in 2017 through the independent research and development of the enzymatic platform technology, and the production cost dropped by 95%. In addition to breaking the technological monopoly of the United States and Japan, the market share is also rising. Take "Yishenghao" under Timeshop, a biotechnology company in Hong Kong Island, as an example. According to the data of JD Business Intelligence on November 16, Yishenghao, as a domestic product, has ranked first in its category, successfully breaking the list of imported products from Japan and the United States. History of the top three.
Behind the recognition of domestic production is the continuous investment in scientific research in my country. Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences found in clinical trials that "Yishenghao" molecules can help cells rejuvenate. Judging from the data of the China Clinical Trial Center, in 2022 alone, Zhejiang University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University and other universities will conduct experiments based on the core ingredients of "Yishenghao", involving physiological aging indicators such as testosterone levels and sleep quality.
The successive breakthroughs of artificial diamonds, dredgers, and probiotics have also brought sufficient confidence to the country. "As long as the thinking does not slip, there are always more ways than difficulties."
"The career has not been successful, comrades still need to work hard"
Industry insiders pointed out that despite the rapid development of the artificial diamond industry, it is still difficult for many people to accept "cheap" artificial diamonds. In addition to the difficulty of changing the inherent concept behind this, it is also related to the stories that have been "crafted" in Europe and the United States for many years.
If China's man-made diamonds want to share a piece of the cake with major European diamond companies, there will still be many difficulties in the future. Not long ago, six overseas institutions in Europe and the United States jointly opposed the establishment of my country's synthetic diamond standards. The future of artificial diamonds in China still has a long way to go. Fortunately, we are already on our way.
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