[Special Stock] Yeonghwa Tech, First to Produce ESS Using Recycled Waste Batteries... Concerns Over Battery-Induced Oil Shock-Level Impact

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] Younghwa Tech is soaring. Interest in the recycling business of spent batteries appears to be influencing the stock price.

At 9:46 a.m. on the 17th, Younghwa Tech was trading at 15,150 KRW, up 20.24% from the previous trading day.

Foreign media reported that if raw materials are not recycled from spent batteries, a shock comparable to the "Oil Shock" could occur. Although the demand for raw materials needed to manufacture electric vehicle batteries is surging, supply is unlikely to keep up. Similar to how crude oil prices nearly quadrupled within a year during the 1973 Oil Shock, delivering a fatal blow to the global economy, the soaring prices of raw materials required for battery production could cause a similar impact.

Tim Johnston, chairman of the spent battery recycling company Recycle, said, "Lithium, cobalt, and nickel take more than five years to develop and mine mines, making it difficult to increase production compared to oil." Recycle has signed a spent battery recycling contract with Ultium Cells, a joint venture between LG Energy Solution and General Motors (GM). It is known to have technology capable of recovering more than 95% of raw materials from spent batteries.

Younghwa Tech has secured an understanding of the overall electric vehicle system and power electronics control technology through mass production development of core power conversion components for electric vehicles and secondary batteries. The company explained that, as a leading company, it is promoting a business to REUSE high-voltage spent batteries from electric vehicles as industrial ESS (Energy Saving Storage). It was selected as the lead operator for the 10kW-class ESS reuse technology development project using spent batteries. The company is proactively advancing related businesses.

Last year, Younghwa Tech, together with Chungnam Province, developed technology to manufacture solar power generation energy storage systems (ESS) reusing electric vehicle spent batteries for the first time in Korea. It has entered the demonstration and commercialization stages. The ESS manufacturing technology is the result of an independent research and development (R&D) project carried out over three years starting in 2018, and last year it completed performance verification preparations and entered the demonstration phase.