[Featured Stock] Ecoplastic, Replacing Steel and Glass as a 'Precious Asset'... Electric Vehicle Dominance Hinges on Lightweighting

EcoPlastic is showing strong performance. The news that the automobile market is rapidly recovering appears to be influencing the stock price. In the U.S. market, global automobile manufacturers' earnings have improved. The vehicle semiconductor supply chain disruptions that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic have almost been resolved, and despite interest rate hikes, consumer demand for new cars seems robust.

As of 10:24 AM on the 6th, EcoPlastic is trading at 7,600 KRW, up 10.95% from the previous day.

With the recovery of the automobile market, demand for lightweight materials is expected to increase rapidly.

Researcher Eunyoung Lim from Samsung Securities explained, "The application of lightweight materials is essential in the electric vehicle era," adding, "Since the body and chassis account for half of the curb weight, lightweight materials are applied the most there." She continued, "Even internal combustion engine vehicles have seen the proportion of non-ferrous metals exceed 30% due to the SUV boom and larger body sizes," and explained, "For internal combustion engine vehicles, reducing curb weight by 100 kg results in about an 11 g/km reduction in CO2 emissions and a fuel consumption decrease of 0.4 liters per 100 km."

The stock price of Sungwoo Hitech has risen nearly 20%, increasing interest in lightweight material companies.

Due to the structure of electric vehicles, the space (volume) and weight available for battery installation are fixed. Within these relatively limited conditions, maximizing battery capacity is necessary to improve driving range. Vehicle lightweighting is essential for driving range efficiency. According to the Korea Automotive Technology Institute, for every 1 kg increase in vehicle weight, the driving range per kW decreases by 0.00429 km. A 1% reduction in vehicle weight increases driving efficiency by 0.53%.

EcoPlastic's performance has rapidly improved recently, benefiting from the trend of automobile lightweighting. Following record-high net profits last year, the company is accelerating business diversification by developing glass-replacement plastics and quarter glass plastic products tailored for the electric vehicle era. It has also been included among top-tier companies by meeting financial requirements.

Since its founding in 1984, EcoPlastic has strengthened its competitiveness through enhanced engineering capabilities, factory automation, and quality improvement systems based on over 30 years of accumulated automotive plastic parts manufacturing and production technology. The company continuously pursues technological development for lightweight design and operates a molding injection factory boasting the largest domestic production capacity with 39 molding injection machines, as well as a fully automated painting factory with the largest facilities for a single plant. The 4th factory was established to drive future growth in vehicle lightweighting. EcoPlastic has led numerous research and development efforts for vehicle lightweighting. In 2016, it developed and supplied a Spare Tire Well product for the Renault Samsung Motors SM6, replacing the existing steel product with a plastic product that is over 30% lighter. It also supplies plastic bumper and plastic fender panel products for Hyundai Motor Company's hydrogen vehicle, Nexo.

Earlier, the Korea IR Association introduced in its analysis report on EcoPlastic that the company is focusing on developing glass-replacement plastics and steel-replacement plastic products. Since the end of last year, with government support, it has been developing a product that integrates the entire rear door of an SUV into a single plastic component.