Next target is to cut costs, make machines locally

Students try out ballpens at a stationery store in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province. [Cao Jianxiong/For China Daily]

Experts have said the development of homegrown world-class ballpoint pen heads would cut the cost of making the tips by roughly 50 percent.

Kui Weiliang, deputy director of the China Ningbo Stationery Association in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province, home to one of the leading Chinese stationery enterprises, Beifa Group, said: "The average cost of producing a ballpoint pen is about 0.5 yuan (7 cents). The head costs more than 0.1 yuan, which could be decreased to a maximum 0.04-0.05 yuan when the homemade stainless steel replaces imported ones. When it (special steel) gets mass produced, customers could buy good-quality ballpens at a lower price."

However, Zhao Dongmin, who has run the M&G Chenguang Stationery store in Chaoyang district, Beijing, for about five years, said the price of ballpoint pens would not be affected.

"I don't think the buying and selling price will change," Zhao said.

"The cost saved in materials is likely to be offset by the increasing production and logistics expenses."

In his store, varieties of ballpoint pens are on display. Prices range from 1 to 4.5 yuan.

"Generally, customers tend to pay 2 or 3 yuan for a ballpoint pen. For items as cheap as ballpoint pens, few people will care whether the pen is made in China or not. But the difference in quality will be noticed," Zhao said.

Since Taiyuan Iron & Steel Co declared its intention to develop the first homegrown stainless steel unit for use in the production of ballpoint pen heads in early January, the topic has created more than 7.5 million page views on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like social media platform in China.

"The production process to create a ballpoint pen head is as complicated as that in producing a watch. I'm proud China is the sixth country that succeeded in doing it," messaged one netizen.

Fu Yuanlong, deputy director of the National Light Industry Fountain Pen and Ballpoint Pen Testing Center, said ballpoint pen testing has strict standards.

"A qualified ballpoint pen should write 2,000 meters and there should be no broken lines or ink leakage," he said.

"The diameter of the ball is no bigger than one millimeter. And it should be matched perfectly with the ball seat to let the ink flow from the gap between."

Fu said since the tiny head requires high-precision stainless steel and high-end equipment, China had been importing them from Japan and Switzerland for many years, which caused the high cost of production.

"It's exciting to know that China has finally produced world-class ballpoint pen heads, but we are still using imported equipment. One day, when Chinese equipment becomes available, the ballpoint pen will be marked as a real made-in-China product," he said.