[Market Focus] Enjet Leads New Year’s Rare Earth Race... Establishes World’s First Circular PCB Ecosystem

Enjet is showing strong performance. The news that the company is entering the value-added materials recycling market and aims to establish the world’s first circular manufacturing ecosystem for printed circuit boards (PCBs) appears to be influencing its stock price.

Analysts are predicting that 2026, the second year of Donald Trump’s second term as U.S. president, will become a year of a “mineral war” without gunfire. Major international organizations and consulting firms, including the International Energy Forum (IEF) and Goldman Sachs, have identified critical minerals as a key variable that could shake up the global economic order in the new year.

As of 10:41 a.m. on January 2, Enjet was trading at 9,270 won, up 1,110 won (13.60%) from the previous trading day.

According to a recent report released by the U.S. Congressional Research Service (CRS), the Trump administration has established a legal basis for independently mining deep-sea minerals in the Clarion-Clipperton (CC) zone of the Pacific Ocean, taking advantage of the fact that the United States is not a party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and thus can avoid the regulations of the International Seabed Authority (ISA).

UNCLOS only allows exploration in international waters and prohibits mining, but ratifying countries have secured limited development rights in accordance with ISA guidelines.

Reuters reported that intense negotiations between the United States and China are expected until the end of November next year, the deadline for China’s rare earth export control exemption. This is because no trade agreement on rare earth elements has been reached between the two countries so far. Goldman Sachs predicted, “As values are determined not by supply and demand fundamentals but by geopolitical importance, the risk of supply disruptions will arise not only for rare earth elements but also for other critical minerals and natural gas in the coming years.”

With brushless DC (BLDC) motors becoming the standard drive motors for advanced industrial equipment such as semiconductors, electric vehicles, and robots, demand for rare earth elements-including neodymium and dysprosium, which are key materials-is expected to surge. Recently, as China, the world’s largest holder of rare earth elements, has been embroiled in trade conflicts with the United States, securing a stable supply chain for high-purity rare earth elements used in semiconductor manufacturing has emerged as a key factor for corporate competitiveness.

Enjet plans to gradually expand its business into rare earth recycling by leveraging its existing advanced industrial precision materials control technology and global corporate references, and by integrating the acquired business unit and technology. With this acquisition, the company has secured not only experience in PCB-based recycling but also a licensing system that enables recycling of high-value-added metals such as rare earth elements.