[Featured Stock] J.O Outpaces CNT Challenge Materials in Growth Speed for Electric Vehicles... 5-6 Times Expansion of Anode and Cathode Materials

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] Carbon nanotube company J-O is soaring on its first day of listing.

At 9:35 a.m. on the 16th, J-O was trading at 24,250 KRW, up 21.86% from the opening price.

J-O set its opening price at 19,900 KRW, about 53% higher than the public offering price of 13,000 KRW.

J-O succeeded in mass-producing carbon nanotubes (CNT) for the first time in Korea in 2006. It possesses proprietary production technology that can control diameter, length, shape, and other factors that determine the quality of the material. As of November 2022, it completed an expansion from an existing annual production capacity of 300 tons to 1,000 tons. It plans to further expand to an annual production capacity of 5,000 tons by 2025.

Based on 20 years of CNT research, J-O succeeded in developing world-class quality carbon nanotubes for secondary battery conductive additives. Through verification over more than five years with long-term customers, its material technology and quality have been recognized, and it supplies carbon nanotubes to major domestic and international secondary battery manufacturers.

J-O's carbon nanotubes have superior performance and advantages compared to competitors' products, including ▲ excellent electrical properties due to wide specific surface area and small diameter ▲ high-efficiency homogeneous product production ▲ use of non-ferrous catalysts to prevent voltage drop and fire risk in batteries.

Researcher Seongjoong Koo of DS Investment & Securities explained, "CNT conductive additives will grow faster than the electric vehicle market," adding, "The electric vehicle market is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 25% until 2030." He continued, "Conductive additive CNT is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 45%, and CNT's excellent conductivity is increasing demand as a material for secondary battery conductive additives."

He analyzed, "While carbon black has been the main raw material for conductive additives, the CNT conductive additive market is also blossoming as electric vehicle performance advances. MWCNT conductive additives are mainly needed for high-nickel cathode materials, and SWCNT conductive additives are required for silicon anode materials, so as demand for electric vehicle performance improvement grows, these markets will also grow rapidly."

Researcher Koo explained, "J-O plans to increase production capacity of MWCNT for cathode materials and TWCNT for anode materials by 5 times and 6 times respectively compared to last year by 2025," adding, "Based on a company-wide margin rate of 25% in 2025, the investment amount can be recovered within 2 to 3 years."