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| Lotte Energy Materials CEO Kim Yeon-seop speaks during a press conference at Lotte Hotel World in Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of Lotte Energy Materials |
By Park Jae-hyuk
Lotte Energy Materials said Tuesday that it aims to become the global leader in the high-end copper foil market by increasing its market share to 30 percent by 2028.
The company also expressed confidence about outperforming its competitors through a thinner copper foil with higher intensity and elongation. Such features are considered necessary for the production of batteries for high-performing electric vehicles.
"It is still difficult for our rivals to produce copper foil that satisfies both high-intensity and high-elongation rate, so we are the only company producing such a product," Lotte Energy Materials CEO Kim Yeon-seop said.
He made the remarks during Lotte Energy Materials' first press conference since Lotte Chemical's acquisition of the company, which was formerly Iljin Materials, the world's No. 4 copper foil maker in terms of market share.
At this moment, the world's leading copper foil maker in terms of market share is SK Nexilis, the wholly owned subsidiary of SKC, a chemical unit of SK Group.
When Lotte signed the deal last October to acquire Iljin Materials, SK Nexilis CEO Yi Jae-hong told reporters that there is a significantly wide gap between his company and other copper foil manufacturers.
Although the Lotte affiliate emphasized its competitiveness in the high-end copper foil market, it declined to disclose its share of the market during a recent press conference, saying the global demand for high-end products is still in its infancy.
"The market share is not meaningful at this moment," Kim said.
The CEO also apologized to the company's shareholders for the sharp drop in its stock price after credit rating agencies recently cut the credit ratings of Lotte Chemical and its affiliates, citing the chemical firm's worsening financial soundness.
"The falling stock price can be attributed to our worsening short-term performance and uncertainties about the medium- to long-term outlook for our business," Kim said. "However, there are signs of an increase in demand for our products, especially in the Chinese market. In addition, the high-end market is expected to grow rapidly in the medium to long run."
Lotte Energy Materials also said it is looking into a couple of regions in North America, as candidates for the site to build another overseas factory, following the one in Malaysia and another in Spain.
"We are looking for the region that can supply renewable energies at lower costs and workers who will not leave in a short period of time," Kim said. "We hope to come up with tangible results within this year, but this could be changeable."
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