In the 1953 film 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes', Marilyn Monroe, as a popular symbol, wore a peach-colored satin dress and sang 'Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend', making diamonds the desired jewel for countless women. In 'Titanic', in addition to the touching love story between the main characters Jack and Rose, there was also the deep blue diamond 'Heart of the Ocean' that ran through the whole movie.
So, what is the value of diamonds that are so beloved by women? This question, in fact, is most appropriately answered by Henan province. Here's why:
There's a saying in the superhard materials industry: 'The world looks at China, and China looks at Henan.' Currently, China's diamond single crystal production accounts for about 95% of the world's total production, and the output of artificial diamonds in Henan accounts for 80% of the national total. Today, Zhecheng County in Henan has become the 'diamond capital of the world'
Colored diamond jewelry is nurtured by technology. In 2019, there was a major breakthrough in technology for large-grain colored diamonds at Zhongnan Diamond in China. Henan Zhongnan Diamond produces 7 billion carats of diamond annually, accounting for 46% of the world's output of artificial diamonds and over 50% of China's production.
Diamonds are known as 'gold stones' and are a mineral composed of carbon. In a sense, those who sell diamonds are also selling carbon. Many people believe that diamonds are expensive because they are scarce, but are diamonds really that scarce?
In fact, artificial diamonds and natural diamonds have the same chemical and physical properties. Cultivated diamonds can be comparable to natural diamonds in terms of crystal structure integrity, transparency, refractive index, dispersion, and other aspects. By simulating the environment in which natural diamonds are formed, synthetic diamonds that are identical to natural diamonds can be mass-produced, with retail prices only about one-third of natural diamonds. The affordable synthetic diamonds provide consumers with more choices. For example, a natural diamond ring that costs 1 million yuan can be replaced with a synthetic diamond ring that costs only 100,000 yuan.
In 2021 alone, Henan produced 3 million carats of cultivated diamonds. How many couples can use this amount of diamonds? Therefore, Henan takes seriously the wish that 'lovers will eventually be united'.
Cultivated diamonds are just one achievement in the development of Henan's superhard materials industry. Superhard materials, represented by diamonds, are the darling of industry and are known as the 'king of materials', the 'teeth of industry', and the 'ultimate semiconductor'.
As the king of materials, in addition to excellent mechanical properties, diamond also has many outstanding thermal, optical, acoustic, electrical, and chemical properties, such as the highest thermal conductivity, high carrier mobility, high insulation, excellent optical transparency, and chemical stability. This makes it have excellent application potential in cutting-edge technology fields such as aerospace, nuclear industry, new-generation semiconductors, and ultra-high power devices.
Initially, all of China's artificial diamonds were imported, and in today's terms, this was a technology that was once 'neck-strangled' by foreign countries. The breakthrough was finally made by Zhengzhou Sanmo Group.
Established in 1958, Zhengzhou Sanmo Group, full name Zhengzhou Research Institute for Abrasives & Grinding, is a research institute specializing in the production of superhard materials. At that time, sand wheel factories were being built across the country, but they lacked the most critical material - artificial diamonds.
While for scholars, reading and self-cultivation is enough, in industry, special tools cannot be cut or polished without superhard materials. In 1960, the State Ministry of the First Machinery Industry assigned the task of researching artificial diamonds to Sanmo Group.
According to Mr. Wang Guangzu, the 'Father of Artificial Diamonds' in China, there was a lack of relevant research data and experts in the field, and China could not seek help from the Soviet Union due to their deteriorating relationship. However, as Chinese people are best at tackling tough problems, in 1963, after three years of research, Zhengzhou Sanmo Group successfully developed China's first artificial diamond, making China the fifth country to develop diamonds after the United States, the Soviet Union, and others.
Subsequently, Sanmo Group collaborated with Jinan Casting and Forging Machinery Research Institute to develop China's first diamond-making machine, the six-sided top-pressing machine in 1965. It is said that the institute's leaders rewarded all researchers with a bowl of stewed noodles.
From the development of the first artificial diamond to the first cubic boron nitride and cultivated diamond, Sanmo Group has always been at the forefront of China's superhard materials industry. With its leadership, the superhard materials industry in Henan has developed rapidly.
As of the end of 2021, there were more than 300 large-scale superhard material companies in Henan, with an industry scale of 40 billion yuan, including around 30 companies with sales exceeding 100 million yuan.
Zhengzhou, Changge in Xuchang, Zhecheng in Shangqiu, Jiaozuo, and Fangcheng in Nanyang have formed clusters of superhard materials industries. Currently, the top three domestic superhard materials companies, Zhongnan Diamond, Huanghe Whirlwind, and Liangtong Diamond, are all from Henan.
From scratch to today's development, China's superhard materials industry has reached a new stage of development. Although China is a major producer of superhard materials and products, it is not yet a superpower, and its industrial technology level still has a significant gap with the international leading level. Some high-end superhard material technologies are still controlled by countries such as the United States and Japan.
Henan is also facing challenges. Data shows that in the field of products and composite materials, Henan's market share is relatively small, and the types of products are relatively few, and the application fields are relatively narrow. It needs to develop towards high-grade, multi-variety, serialization, and specialization.
In short, the superhard materials industry in Henan also faces the problem of being "large but not refined". This problem leads to two hidden dangers: first, low-price dumping. With a majority of upstream raw materials products and relatively few high-end products and functional application products, there is a phenomenon of large-scale sales of products at low prices to foreign countries, and some high-end products still need to be imported at a high price. Second, there is overcapacity. The competitiveness of medium and high-end products is weak, and the degree of product specialization and refinement is not enough, resulting in overcapacity in some mid-to-low-end products.
In addition, industry insiders pointed out that over-reliance on traditional sales models and a lack of high-end talent in application sales are also factors restricting the development of the superhard materials industry in Henan.
To overcome these challenges, Henan needs to complete the transformation from being big to being strong.
Just a few days ago, the Secretary of the Henan Provincial Party Committee, Lou Yangsheng, conducted a special investigation into the development of the superhard materials industry and proposed to enhance the modernization level of the industry chain to achieve advantage reconstruction and lead the way. The investigation also mentioned that "striving to become a middle and high-end player in critical environments" is the key to the development of the industry.
In the "14th Five-Year Plan" for Henan's development, it is clear that efforts will be made to consolidate the advantages of artificial diamonds, vigorously develop gem-grade diamonds, high thermal conductivity and high transmittance polycrystalline diamonds, accelerate the R&D and manufacturing of high-end products such as diamond polycrystals and high-end cutting tools, and promote the coordinated development of raw and auxiliary materials, superhard materials and products, and build a global superhard materials industry base. The expressions of R&D and manufacturing of high-end products and the coordinated development of superhard materials and products point the direction for the industry's future development.
Moreover, Henan not only has a development direction but also a development goal. In the "Action Plan for the Cultivation of Advanced Manufacturing Clusters in Henan Province" released by the provincial government in 2021, the grand goal was proposed to "build a trillion-level industrial chain of superhard materials and create a trillion-level new material industry cluster with world influence."
Under the "call" of this goal, in 2022, the Henan Diamond Materials Industry Research Institute was established. The institute is led by Huanghe Whirlwind and jointly established by universities, scientific research institutes, and key upstream and downstream enterprises within and outside the province. Its key tasks are to attract and cultivate high-end talents and strengthen the incubation of the industry chain.
In recent years, the matching degree between research and development and production in the superhard materials industry in Henan has been continuously improved, and the speed of achievement and technology transformation has been accelerating. For example, Huanghe Whirlwind's independently developed "1-5 mm gem-grade colorless diamond synthesis key technology" and other nine technologies have reached the international advanced level. Huifeng Diamond has industry-leading advantages in the research and development and production of diamond micro-powders and has participated in the formulation of national standards.
As the national superhard materials industry research and development center, industrial base, and source of technology and talent radiation, Henan's development is promising. We look forward to seeing how this "superhard" industry can be transformed into "superhard" strength for high-quality development.