Korea Zinc announced on the 8th that it achieved the highest quarterly sales ever in the first quarter of this year. The company decided to incinerate all shares it acquired last year within this year.
Korea Zinc's sales in the first quarter were tallied at 3.8328 trillion won, a 61.4% increase compared to the same period last year. This marks the highest quarterly sales amount ever. Operating profit rose 46.9% during the same period to 271.1 billion won, achieving a profit for 101 consecutive quarters.
The company explained that the rise in metal prices and exchange rates, along with an increase in sales of rare metals, contributed to the strong performance in the first quarter. In particular, the company achieved more than a 3.5-fold increase in sales in the strategic mineral institutional sector.
A Korea Zinc official noted, 'In the midst of a U.S.-China tariff war, where major countries are attempting to rebuild supply chains to secure strategic minerals, we are solidifying our status as the only strategic mineral production base in the country,' adding, 'We will further improve the recovery rate of rare metals to enhance performance in the strategic mineral institutional sector.'
At the board meeting held that day, Korea Zinc decided to incinerate all of the 2,043,030 treasury shares acquired last year. This amount corresponds to 9.85% of the total issued shares, which is 20,703,283. The company plans to sequentially proceed with incineration in June, September, and December of this year.
The board appointed Hwang Deok-nam as the chairperson and also approved the reappointment of Park Gi-deok, the internal director (president of Korea Zinc), as the CEO. Chairperson Hwang, a former judge, is a legal expert with 40 years of experience, having worked in the Seoul District Court, the Seoul High Court, and the Office of Civil Affairs at the Blue House.
Park Gi-deok has served as the representative for about two years, from March 2023 until March this year. He is credited with contributing to the expansion of Korea Zinc's business from a focus on smelting to renewable energy, secondary battery materials, and resource recycling fields, as well as laying the groundwork for achieving the highest quarterly sales ever.