[Click eStock] "Lotte Jeongmil, Benefiting from Global Mixed Power Generation Expansion... Target Price Up"

Hana Securities raised the target price of Lotte Fine Chemical, a chemical company affiliated with the Lotte Group, to 60,000 won on the 21st. They anticipated an improvement in the performance of Lotte Fine Chemical, Asia's No. 1 ammonia distributor, as domestic and global power companies expand ammonia co-firing (mixed combustion) power generation.

Yoon Jae-sung, an analyst at Hana Securities, stated in a report on the same day that ammonia co-firing power generation plans are being concretized mainly in Korea and Japan. Ammonia co-firing power generation is a power generation technology that mixes coal and ammonia for combustion, reducing fossil fuel usage and significantly cutting carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions.

JERA, Japan's largest power company, recently started 20% ammonia co-firing power generation at the Hekinan thermal power plant. Korea Southern Power was selected by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and Korea Electric Power Corporation as the infrastructure builder for ammonia co-firing power generation and is developing a 30,000-ton liquefied ammonia storage infrastructure project. Western Power and Central Power are also focusing on ammonia co-firing projects.

Analyst Yoon evaluated, "Lotte Fine Chemical is Asia's No. 1 and the world's third-largest ammonia distributor, importing and storing about 900,000 tons of ammonia annually," adding, "Its domestic ammonia distribution market share is about 70%."

He also noted, "In March this year, Lotte Fine Chemical purchased the Manta Salasak, a 38,500㎡ LPG carrier, from Turkey's Manta Shipping for 40 million dollars (52 billion won), preparing for the opening of the domestic ammonia co-firing and bunkering market," and estimated, "The domestic ammonia market will grow fivefold from 860 billion won in 2021 to 4.3 trillion won by 2030."

Accordingly, he forecasted, "Lotte Fine Chemical plans to maintain a high market share in the ammonia-related market and increase its sales about threefold during this period."