Korea Zinc buys US e-waste recycling firm for $332 mn

Korea Zinc, the world’s largest lead and zinc smelter, agreed to buy a majority stake in a US-based electronic waste recycling company for $332 million on Monday, a move to expand its footprint in the battery materials market.

The largest non-ferrous metal smelter in South Korea is acquiring a 73.21% stake in Igneo Holdings LLC in an all-cash deal, the company said on Monday

Igneo collects electronic waste in the US and extracts copper, gold, silver and palladium during their smelting process.

The acquisition will expand Korea Zinc’s copper smelting capacity from the current 30,000 tons per year for supply to its wholly-owned copper foil producing unit KZAM. Copper foil coats anode materials used in rechargeable batteries.

Korea Zinc expects that Igneo’s e-waste supply chain will ensure a steady supply of copper foil materials and smooth its entry into the rechargeable battery recycling market.

Korea Zinc Vice Chairman and CEO Choi Yun-Birm said in a statement that its majority stake in Igneo Holdings will create synergy for its non-ferrous smelting businesses of rechargeable battery materials, resource recycling and renewable energy.

“It will also contribute to our efforts to shift into renewable energy as per the RE100 initiative which we participated in last September,” he said.       

RECORD PROFIT, AMPLE CASH RESERVES

Korea Zinc has been enjoying double-digit annual growth in both operating profit and sales since 2017, with an operating profit margin of over 10% since 2006.

Last year, it posted a record-high operating profit of 1 trillion won ($762 million), a 22.2% increase from the year previous. Sales jumped 31.6% to 10 trillion won last year, driven by rising prices of non-ferrous metals such as lead and zinc.

Buoyed by the robust earnings and ample cash reserves in excess of 2 trillion won, Korea Zinc is keen to venture into new growth fields such as battery materials and hydrogen. 

As part of such efforts, the company acquired 100% of Australia's largest renewable energy developer Epuron for an undisclosed sum in late 2021.

CEO Choi, the third-generation leader from its founding family, has been at the forefront of the change since he took the helm of Korea Zinc in 2019, abandoning its decades-long, low-key strategy.

In a new year's speech last January, he said the company will go beyond a non-ferrous metal smelter and expand into renewable energy, green hydrogen, waste recycling and rechargeable battery materials.

Write to Ik-Hwan Kim at lovepen@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article