Top Material announced on the 15th that they had recently requested for a preliminary review for listing on the KOSDAQ. Established in 2012, Top Material primarily focuses on battery equipment and engineering.
CEO Hwan-jin Noh, a former Samsung SDI employee, is leading the company. He led the development of Samsung SDI's first lithium-ion polymer battery, and later served as executive vice president of manufacturing technology at A123 Systems in the United States, where he oversaw the world's first lithium iron phosphate battery development for electric vehicles. He is an engineer-turned-businessman who managed to list A123 Systems on NASDAQ while building the first Gigafactory in Michigan in 2009.
Top Material is attaining stable growth with their system engineering business, which is key in the secondary battery field, as well as their electrode business for secondary batteries, and process equipment for cylindrical batteries and all-solid-state batteries.
Last year, they exported equipment for the entire processing of cylindrical batteries to a leading European battery cell company, and recently received orders for assembly equipment from several all-solid-state battery start-ups in the United States.
Last year, it recorded KRW 31.9 billion in sales and KRW 4.8 billion in operating profit. 90% of sales came from Europe and the United States. This year, the goal is achieve more than double the growth of last year.
They are also pursuing the development and mass production of next-generation cathode materials as a new business this year.
CEO Hwan-jin Noh said, “The most important material is the cathode material, which determines the performance and material cost of batteries for electric vehicles," and, "The cathode material we are developing is a next-generation manganese-based material, which is inexpensive and has high thermal stability."
Top Material aims to reduce manufacturing costs and lower dependence on Chinese materials by applying an eco-friendly method that does not go through a precursor process with manganese-based materials. This is because China controls the currently commercialized high-nickel-based materials (precursors) and iron phosphate materials, which is expected to cause difficulties in the supply chain in the future.
CEO Noh said, “Top Material is planning to list on the KOSDAQ in the second half of this year," adding, "Once we have secured funding, we will begin building a new factory for the production of cathode materials."
By Staff Reporter Tae-jun Park gaius@etnews.com