[Featured Stock] Seonam, High-Temperature Superconductor with 10,000 Times Current Density of Copper... Expected Supply to KEPCO

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] As copper prices continue to rise, Seonam's stock price is showing strength.

As of 10:20 AM on the 10th, Seonam was trading at 4,520 KRW, up 13.85% (550 KRW) compared to the previous trading day.

Seonam was established in 2004. It produces 2nd generation high-temperature superconductors using its independently developed RCE-DR process. Superconductors are materials whose electrical resistance becomes '0' below a certain temperature. They have no power loss and have a current density more than 10,000 times higher than copper, reducing losses in power devices. Among domestic companies, it has secured various clients including LS Cable & System and Korea Electric Research Institute, and among overseas companies, clients such as Russia's SuperOx and France's Nexans.

In November 2019, with Korea Electric Power Corporation's (KEPCO) world-first commercialization of superconducting cables, South Korea led the global superconducting power industry and laid the technological foundation for market preemption. Seonam fully localized superconducting materials, which were classified as strategic materials by Japan, through research and development support for KEPCO's superconducting wire for cables.

At that time, KEPCO announced the promotion of the world's first 154 kV ultra-high voltage superconducting power transmission commercialization project and a superconducting platform project applying a 23 kV class 3-phase coaxial superconducting cable.

The world's first commercial superconducting cable project for 154 kV power transmission was approved in 2020 and is currently in the design phase. According to the project plan, certification testing is expected to be conducted in the first half of 2022. The superconducting platform demonstration project applying the 23 kV class 3-phase coaxial superconducting cable is expected to complete certification testing soon. Seonam anticipated that contracts and deliveries for the main volume would begin in the second half of 2021 following KEPCO's project promotion.

In addition to the superconducting power application device field, Seonam supplies superconducting wire to various superconducting coil application device development projects such as high-field MRI, NMR, industrial induction heaters, space-aerospace propulsion systems, Hyper-tube magnetic levitation trains, and next-generation urban air mobility, responding to the demands of future technology markets.