In 2022, due to ongoing strong demand and pricing for Tungsten products, Masan High-Tech Materials delivered record revenues of nearly $662 million, a 15 per cent improvement over the previous year.
“Masan High-Tech Materials had a year of challenges, overcoming market fluctuations and impacts of various factors in the region and the world. Though Tungsten revenues and tungsten scrap recycling rates were significantly higher, contributing to delivering FY2022 record revenue”, Masan High-Tech Materials CEO Craig Richard Bradshaw told its rêcnt annual general meeting 2023 with the theme of ‘Growth through sustainability’ in Hanoi.
As a result of drilling undertaken at Nui Phao throughout 2020 and 2021, the company has been able to increase the JORC reserves significantly as compared to the 2019 JORC reserves. In November 2022 this leaves 44.1 million tonnes of ore still to be mined and processed giving an indicative mine life of at least another 12 years.
Production from tungsten scrap recycling within H.C. Starck increased by 13 per cent. Masan High-Tech Materials is working to increase the proportion of its production coming from secondary sources (scrap recycling), in keeping with the company’s “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” policy.
Within the year 2022, Masan High-Tech Materials established a global innovation hub based on two R&D centers in Goslar, Germany and Thai Nguyen, Vietnam. Leveraging the technological advancements of H.C. Starck over the past 100 years, MHT continued to invest in innovation and process improvement in order to maintain its long-term growth trajectory. The company has developed innovative processes, breakthrough solutions, and eco-friendly products to meet the global market’s unmet needs, earning 95 new patents worldwide and 50 patents that are still in the application stage.
With extensive experience and potential in supplying high-tech materials and ongoing research to evaluate the needs of critical industries, MHT believes that Tungsten is the "key" to the innovation future of these industries.
In 2022, Masan High-Tech Materials executed definitive agreements to invest around $56 million into Nyobolt Limited, a UK-based lithium-ion fast-charging battery solutions company, to promote the application of advanced Tungsten materials in the development and manufacturing of high-performance batteries.
Tungsten-containing batteries can charge up to more than 90 per cent in only 5 minutes with higher heat resistance, 10 times greater power density and durability, resulting in cost savings and more safety for users. Even at the end of the battery life, the new battery technology also allows for the recovery and reuse of key metal components like lithium, manganese, cobalt, nickel, tungsten and niobium.
From the success of the high-tech Tungsten refining and processing project, Masan High-Tech Materials plans to implement the first ever and largest Tungsten recycling plant project in Vietnam servicing the Asian region.
The goal is to make Vietnam the leading Tungsten and critical metals recycling technology development center in the area. The success of the project will demonstrate our outstanding competence and provide Vietnamese workforce an opportunity to advance engineering capabilities in the high-tech manufacturing space, thus enhancing the country’s competitiveness in the global tungsten market.
In 2023, the company will focus on developing a fully integrated circular economy model with a closed value chain that encompasses waste and scrap collection, processing, recycling of scraps, and raw material recovery. Accordingly, Tungsten will be recovered from used batteries and industrial wastes, then recycled to be used as feed materials for new product development.
The company expects net revenue in 2023 of $702 million to $775 million, an increase from 6 to 17 per cent compared to the previous period.
