[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] CTK is showing strong performance. It appears that the stock price has been influenced by the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's commitment to fostering the biodegradable plastic (PLA) industry as one of its national policy tasks.
As of 9:36 a.m. on the 11th, CTK is trading at 11,200 KRW, up 15.23% from the previous day.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Environment are expected to establish standards related to biodegradable plastics (PLA) and allow pyrolysis recycling of waste plastics. The petrochemical industry welcomes this development as it provides relatively concrete standards for biodegradable and waste plastics, which had been ambiguous until now. According to the Yoon administration's '110 National Tasks,' the government plans to expedite the establishment of evaluation, certification, and processing systems related to PLA with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and to allow recycling of petroleum, chemical, and hydrogen fuels through pyrolysis of waste plastics with the Ministry of Environment.
CTK plans to commercialize "biodegradable plastics" within this year. The company's Canadian subsidiary is finalizing the process of internationally verifying the biodegradability of its biodegradable plastics. Production facilities are also being established one after another to prepare for manufacturing customized products requested by global companies.
JK Park, CEO of CTK Bio Canada (a subsidiary of CTK USA Holdings Corporation, which holds 87.22%), a grandchild company of CTK, stated, "Our goal is to commercialize biodegradable plastics within this year."
Originally, commercialization was targeted for the first half of this year, but various issues such as logistics problems caused by international geopolitical instability have slowed the progress.
CTK Bio Canada received certification in February that its developed biodegradable plastics meet the OECD 301B standard through Respirtek, a U.S. biodegradable plastics certification body. The company is also undergoing certification procedures with OWS (Organic Waste Systems) in Belgium, a European certification body.
OECD 301B refers to guidelines that determine biodegradability under conditions where oxygen is present, such as in home and industrial composting facilities or in soil and marine environments. OWS provides standards used to evaluate the biodegradation process under landfill conditions where oxygen and moisture are absent.
CEO Park emphasized, "We are actively developing customized products as we have received sample requests from various companies including global IT firms, medical device companies, and toy manufacturers," adding, "We hope our products become a 'game changer' in the bioplastic and eco-friendly materials market."
CTK Bio Canada announced that it developed next-generation biodegradable plastics last year that decompose themselves in any environment where microorganisms exist, such as soil or sea. CTK Bio Canada explained, "Because it uses discarded waste as raw material, it is economical and can be realized with various physical properties, allowing immediate application and production in existing general plastic manufacturing facilities."
Market research firm Market and Markets recently projected that the global bioplastics market size will grow rapidly at a compound annual growth rate of 21.7%, expanding from $10.462 billion in 2020 to $27.969 billion (approximately 34 trillion KRW) by 2025.
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