Surging for Two Consecutive Days to Reach All-Time High
Signed Technology Transfer Contract for Solid Electrolyte with KETI
Secured Solid Electrolyte Technology with High Ionic Conductivity and Improved Atmospheric Stability
[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] CIS has continued its sharp rise for two consecutive days. Expectations that all-solid-state batteries will play a ‘game changer’ role in the rapidly growing electric vehicle market appear to be influencing the stock price. News that it will supply secondary battery electrode process manufacturing equipment worth 18.4 billion KRW to the United States on this day is also helping to improve investor sentiment.
At 1:07 PM on the 22nd, CIS was trading at 9,950 KRW, up 14.76% from the previous day.
Following a 20% surge the previous day, it continued its strong trend on this day as well. During the session, it rose to 10,600 KRW, setting a new all-time high.
On this day, CIS announced that it had signed a supply contract for secondary battery electrode process manufacturing equipment worth 18.4 billion KRW. The supply region is the United States, and the contract period is until June 30, 2022. The company explained that the contract end date is scheduled to be the date of final payment after customer setup and commissioning inspection.
The previous day, CIS signed a technology transfer contract with the Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI) to improve the characteristics of solid electrolytes, a core material for all-solid-state batteries. CIS agreed to receive sulfide-based solid electrolyte material technology for use in all-solid-state batteries from KETI. They secured solid electrolyte manufacturing technology that has high ionic conductivity while significantly improving atmospheric stability.
CIS began material development in April 2017 as the lead organization for the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s materials and components technology development project titled ‘Development of inorganic solid electrolyte material technology for high-safety energy storage devices to realize 0.8 mS/cm-class high ionic conductor films and large-area cells.’ As the lead organization, CIS was responsible for developing the solid electrolyte mass production process, while participating organization KETI was in charge of developing new material technology.
KETI succeeded in creating a solid electrolyte that enables high ionic conductivity and improves atmospheric stability by reducing hydrogen sulfide gas generation to about 25% through research to improve the manufacturing process environment.
In April, CIS was appointed as the lead company for the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy project ‘Development of composite materials and electrode component manufacturing technology for 7mAh/cm2-class high-energy-density electrode plates for ceramic secondary batteries.’ They are developing all-solid-state battery electrode processes and process equipment.
Kim Suha, CEO of CIS, said, "We have secured proprietary solid electrolyte technology with greatly improved atmospheric stability," adding, "We will more than double the monthly solid electrolyte production volume of 70 kg by next year." He also emphasized, "We plan to focus on designing and building automated production lines for solid electrolyte production in line with the expansion of the all-solid-state battery market."
The finished car industry expects electric vehicles equipped with all-solid-state batteries to dominate the market in the future. Toyota Motor Corporation of Japan, the world’s largest automaker by sales volume, has planned to unveil a prototype electric vehicle equipped with an all-solid-state battery in 2021. This is four years earlier than Hyundai Motor’s plan for 2025. German BMW is also expected to launch an all-solid-state battery electric vehicle around 2025 in partnership with the U.S. company Solid Power.
With strong support from the Japanese government, Toyota is moving to secure a leading position in the all-solid-state battery electric vehicle market, raising the possibility of collaboration with domestic companies. LG Energy Solution, which is scheduled to spin off from LG Chem, has set a goal to develop all-solid-state battery samples around 2025. Samsung SDI aims for mass production capability of all-solid-state batteries by 2027.
Compared to lithium secondary batteries, all-solid-state batteries have more than twice the energy density and no fire risk, making them the optimal technology for large batteries used in electric vehicles. Sulfide-based solid electrolytes, known as materials suitable for manufacturing high-capacity large batteries, are expected to become core materials in the future electric vehicle battery market. All-solid-state batteries reduce safety-related components and replace them with materials that increase energy capacity, resulting in superior performance. This is why they are called the ‘dream battery.’ Fuji Keizai Research Institute of Japan estimated the global all-solid-state battery market size to reach 2.8 trillion yen (approximately 30 trillion KRW) by 2035.
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