[Special Stock] Cosmo Chemical, Soaring 87 Trillion Won Waste Battery Market... Emerging as a Comprehensive Secondary Battery Material Company

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] Cosmo Chemical is showing strong performance. The outlook that the recycled battery market will grow rapidly seems to be influencing the stock price.

At 10:23 AM on the 12th, Cosmo Chemical was trading at 17,850 KRW, up 18.21% from the previous day.

According to SNE Research and related industries, the global electric vehicle battery recycling market is expected to grow to 12 trillion KRW by 2030. It is forecasted to grow to 87 trillion KRW by 2040.

Due to climate change response and carbon neutrality policies, the global electric vehicle adoption rate is increasing, which inevitably leads to a rise in batteries used in electric vehicles. The average lifespan of electric vehicle batteries is 7 to 10 years, and in Korea, used batteries have started to appear since 2018. As of the end of last month, there are about 493 nationwide, but with the spread of electric vehicles, this number is expected to increase to 13,826 in 2024. By 2026, it is estimated to increase to 42,092, accumulating to 98,510 units.

Investors overseas are increasingly investing in the growth potential of the recycled battery industry. At the end of last month, Redwood Materials, a U.S. recycled battery technology company, raised $700 million (810 billion KRW) from investors. Since its establishment in 2017, it has attracted investments from funds supported by Amazon, Bill Gates, and Microsoft founders.

Cosmo Chemical has recently been accelerating research and development for the recycled battery business along with the production of cobalt sulfate, a secondary battery raw material. As the global electric vehicle battery market expands and environmental issues coincide, interest in recycled batteries is rapidly increasing. Cosmo Chemical expects the post-use battery market size to grow from 20 trillion KRW in 2030 to 600 trillion KRW in 2050. The company is striving to transform into a comprehensive secondary battery raw material company by recovering lithium, nickel, cobalt, etc., from recycled batteries along with the cobalt sulfate it directly produces.