Can laboratory-grown diamonds last 'forever'?

 Love is priceless, but the diamond ring wrapped in the cloak of love comes with a clear price tag.

The classic slogan 'A diamond is forever, a symbol of eternal love' has deeply resonated with people, becoming the key code tied to diamond sales.

Natural diamonds take billions of years to form, but cultivating a diamond in the lab only takes a few weeks. However, it would be unfair to solely label lab-grown diamonds as fake diamonds. In 2018, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States redefined the term 'diamond' to include lab-grown diamonds in the diamond category. In 2019, the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), an internationally recognized jewelry appraisal and grading institution, announced the use of 'lab-grown diamonds' instead of 'synthetic diamonds.' This signifies a redefinition of the identity of cultivated diamonds in the diamond industry.

In today's era where diamonds can be cultivated on a large scale through artificial means, which type of diamond will people choose to express love?

There are two methods for cultivating diamonds:

One is called HPHT (high pressure high temperature), which is predominantly used by factories in China, occupying the majority of global supply. The three major players (Zhongnan, Yellow River, and Huajing) are the pride of domestically produced diamonds.

The other method is called CVD (chemical vapor deposition), which is more common in factories in Europe and America. Due to the generally better color and clarity of CVD diamonds compared to HPHT (please note, this is a common observation but not absolute. With improvements in HPHT technology, color and clarity have also become very good), CVD is favored.

In recent years, China and India have also made significant strides in CVD diamond production, mainly through purchasing equipment and investing in production.

China's advantages lie in:

1. Monopoly of HPHT production capacity globally;

2. India's current focus on cutting small diamonds;

3. The majority of the expanded CVD production capacity in India is geared towards mid to low-end products, resulting in inconsistent product quality.

China's disadvantages include:

1. Slow development of CVD production capacity;

2. Limited domestic downstream demand, with only 10%-20% of rough diamonds being domestically consumed, heavily reliant on imports from India;

3. India demonstrates a higher level of commitment to fostering diamond development compared to China, addressing significant employment issues;

4. Equipment is not monopolized.

Can laboratory-grown diamonds last 'forever'?

Due to their scarcity, natural diamonds are endowed with the expensive nature of luxury goods, and are thus widely used in the marriage and dating market, using the principle of 'rarity is valuable' to represent the preciousness of love. The recommended logic for cultivated diamonds is that the quality is no different from natural diamonds, but the price is lower. One can imagine that when the price is lower and the item is no longer scarce, whether the symbolic significance of diamonds for love still exists? Is there a contradiction between the cheapness and the positioning of cultivated diamonds as a symbol of the preciousness of love?

People's focus mainly revolves around the following points:

• Whether it's a diamond:

 The quality of cultivated diamonds can also be measured using the diamond industry's widely recognized '4C standard,' which includes size, color, clarity, and cut, all of which can meet the highest standards. Cultivated diamonds are indistinguishable from natural diamonds to the naked eye, and even their chemical composition is identical. Therefore, cultivated diamonds can create perfect 'clones' of natural diamonds. In terms of appearance, cultivated diamonds are almost indistinguishable from natural diamonds, and it is almost impossible to identify cultivated diamonds through the naked eye and simple testing tools. High-quality cultivated diamonds require the use of the most precise large-scale instruments for identification.

• Price gap widening:

With the maturation of technology and the expansion of related companies' production capacity, the price of cultivated diamonds has been declining year by year. According to a report by Bain & Company, in 2016, the retail price of cultivated diamonds was still 80% of that of natural diamonds, and by 2020, this ratio had dropped to 35%.

• Environmental friendliness compared to natural diamonds:

American diamond producers point out that the carbon emissions from mining natural diamonds are more than twice that of cultivated diamonds. Natural diamond production and transportation also emit large amounts of carbon, but cultivated diamonds do not have this carbon emission.Cultivated diamonds are obviously more environmentally friendly.

The most significant advantage of cultivated diamonds is their lower price, which will further decrease with technological advancements. Additionally, the quality of cultivated diamonds is not significantly different from that of natural diamonds and they come in various colors. While natural colored diamonds are extremely rare and precious, synthetic colored diamonds are common. The lower cost of cultivated diamonds also leaves more room for jewelry designers to try more cutting styles.

• Long history of cultivated diamond research and development:

In the mid-20th century, General Electric in the United States developed cultivated diamonds, but due to technological limitations, these diamonds were brownish-yellow and only used for industrial purposes. Since then, scientists have continuously researched the technology and developed cultivated diamonds with higher quality and lower cost. In 2012, the US cultivated diamond company Gemesis announced the development of technology for synthesizing type IIa colorless diamonds (which are diamonds that do not contain nitrogen and other impurities, and are very pure in composition), achieving a major breakthrough in cultivated diamond technology. Subsequently, the technology for gem-grade cultivated diamonds has matured. The Chinese market is actually very primitive in terms of cultivated diamonds, and the vast majority of consumers still prefer natural diamonds. According to consulting firm Bain's data, the market penetration rate of cultivated diamonds has rapidly increased in recent years. From 2020 to 2021, the global penetration rate of cultivated diamonds increased from 5.9% to 8%, and it is expected to reach 15.8% by 2025; the penetration rate of cultivated diamonds in China increased from 4% to 6.7% from 2020 to 2021, and it is expected to reach 13.8% by 2025.

Currently, cultivated diamonds have already appeared in major jewelry brands, and their strong entry into the market is inevitable. Moreover, the maturity of cultivated diamond technology has enabled them to possess the same 'forever' characteristics as natural diamonds. Their prices are far lower than natural diamonds, and coupled with the label of eco-friendly diamonds, more consumers with strong environmental awareness are inclined to purchase cultivated diamonds.

Moreover, the large population base in the Chinese market means that there is no problem supporting the cultivated diamond market in the future. If, a decade ago, many in the diamond industry regarded cultivated diamonds as 'disruptors,' today the situation has improved a lot.

After all, at least those in the industry understand:

1. Cultivated diamonds are not fake diamonds;
2. Consumers of the two types of diamonds only partially overlap;
3. The diamond industry now most needs to expand its market scope.

The total output of cultivated diamonds (rough stones) in 2019 was approximately 7.5 million carats, with the growth rate likely to exceed 50% annually thereafter. In this way, cultivated diamonds will rapidly open up their new battlefield and compete side by side with natural diamonds. No one can ignore its existence because it represents the future and is an irreversible trend.

In fact, whether it's diamonds or luxury handbags, they are all just exquisite shackles that capitalists use to bind consumers and complete the game of harvesting the public.