Eg

EG was established in 1987 to manufacture and sell iron oxide for ferrite magnetic materials and listed on KOSDAQ in 2000, with EG Tech, EG Metal and Energy Park as subsidiaries.

Its core business is high-purity iron oxide production, in which it holds the world's No.1 market share, alongside environmental engineering, trading and solar power businesses.

The company is known as the world's only firm capable of designing, building and operating acid-regeneration plants that separate waste hydrochloric acid from steel pickling into regenerated acid and iron oxide.

Its major customers include leading global ferrite makers such as China's TDG and Japan's TDK, and it has maintained its industry-leading position by supplying raw materials to them reliably.

The company has also been diversifying: it wholly owns EG Tronics, a telecom power-conversion (rectifier/PSU) subsidiary established in March 2024, and holds a 70% stake in AIEG Motors, a motor-related joint venture set up in Jiangsu, China in January 2025.

Regulatory filings indicate the EG group has carried out more than 30 government-backed R&D projects and 20 joint R&D initiatives with large corporations in automotive, defense, shipbuilding, rail and telecom, commercializing products for electric and hydrogen vehicles, compact tactical military vehicles, and telecom power converters supplied to certain large corporations and the Ministry of National Defense for over five years.

Overseas exports appear to have expanded meaningfully from 2020 onward. In sum, EG's revenue structure centers on iron oxide and ferrite materials while carrying additional engineering, trading and power-conversion businesses.

Annual results look more like a phase of narrowing losses than a clear-cut recovery. Revenue fell from KRW 70.19bn in 2022 to KRW 61.80bn in 2023, then moved to KRW 65.21bn in 2024 and KRW 62.75bn in 2025, oscillating in the low-to-mid KRW 60bn range.

Operating loss bottomed at KRW -8.56bn (operating margin -12.2%) in 2022 and KRW -14.35bn (-23.2%) in 2023 before improving to KRW -5.47bn (-8.4%) in 2024 and KRW -2.17bn (-3.5%) in 2025. Net loss attributable to owners peaked at KRW -7.97bn in 2023 and then narrowed to KRW -2.76bn in 2024 and KRW -1.19bn in 2025.

On a quarterly basis, Q2 2025 revenue was KRW 15.60bn with an operating loss of KRW -0.17bn and a net loss attributable to owners of KRW -0.12bn, while Q3 2025 saw revenue of KRW 15.77bn, a wider operating loss of KRW -0.19bn, and a net loss that widened to KRW -0.45bn.

In Q4 2025, revenue reached KRW 16.46bn and the operating loss widened to KRW -0.78bn, yet net income attributable to owners turned positive at KRW +0.66bn, likely reflecting a one-off non-operating effect.

Q1 2026 deteriorated again with revenue of KRW 15.64bn, an operating loss of KRW -0.72bn and a net loss of KRW -1.13bn, before Q2 2026 revenue jumped to KRW 18.68bn and operating profit turned positive at KRW +1.04bn on a quarterly basis.

However, the net loss attributable to owners in Q2 2026 was still KRW -0.92bn, showing that the operating-level improvement has not yet flowed through to the bottom line.

This gap between operating and net results suggests financial costs or losses tied to subsidiaries with negative non-controlling equity remain a drag.

The biggest variable for the magnetic-materials and iron-oxide industry EG operates in is China's control over the rare-earth supply chain. China is reported to account for roughly 70% of global rare-earth production and more than 80% of refining and processing capacity.

China's Ministry of Commerce has expanded the scope of controlled rare-earth exports and signaled extraterritorial application, though according to legal advisory sources the extraterritorial measure's implementation has been deferred to around November 2026.

Rare earths are considered irreplaceable core resources used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, AI and robotics, semiconductors and stealth fighter jets, and analysts note that if controls are fully implemented, Korea's semiconductor, display, EV, electronics, aerospace and renewable-energy industries would be significantly affected given China's dominant grip on the supply chain.

Amid this backdrop, ferrite has drawn attention as a substitute for neodymium-based permanent magnets, and EG, which produces the iron oxide that is the core raw material for ferrite cores, is frequently mentioned in connection with this theme.

The Korean government has also made a "rare-earth supply chain comprehensive plan" its first policy initiative after launching an industrial security and supply chain office, pursuing expanded overseas resource-development financing and an R&D roadmap for substitution, reduction and recycling of rare earths.

Separately, in the downstream battery sector, growing ESS demand driven by AI data-center expansion has prompted Korea's three battery makers to race to build domestic LFP production capacity; although this is chemically distinct from EG's core iron-oxide and ferrite business, EG's share price has at times moved together with this news flow.

In terms of competitive landscape, domestic ferrite/magnet makers such as Samhwa Electronics and Union Materials are often mentioned under the same theme, but EG is distinguished as the only company that produces the iron-oxide raw material itself with in-house acid-regeneration facilities.

The company has outlined a mid-to-long-term direction centered on expanding high-grade iron-oxide production capacity, expanding the Ulsan No.2 furnace, a lithium wastewater-reuse business, and a national R&D project for mass-producing 6G iron-oxide manufacturing technology, all framed as eco-friendly business expansion.

It has also been noted that growth in the ferrite-core market for EV converters and charging equipment, along with more active ferrite-substitution research spurred by China's rare-earth export controls, has helped improve gross margin.

Earlier, in 2023, the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) signed a technology-transfer agreement with EG, the world's No.1 high-grade iron oxide maker, for epsilon iron oxide manufacturing technology, a material reportedly usable in 5G/6G wireless communications, low-earth-orbit satellite communications, stealth and radar sensors, marking it as a potential future pipeline.

On the subsidiary front, whether EG Tronics (telecom power conversion, established 2024) and the China joint venture AIEG Motors (established 2025) can become genuine pillars of group revenue diversification remains a key point to watch.

Under the government's rare-earth supply chain comprehensive plan, the 2026 overseas resource-development loan budget was expanded by KRW 28.5bn from the prior year to KRW 67.5bn with a higher subsidy ratio, suggesting continued policy support that could channel R&D funding toward substitution and recycling-related businesses.

That said, the revenue contribution from these national projects, technology transfers and subsidiary businesses has not yet been disclosed in concrete terms, and whether the Q2 2026 operating-profit turnaround is a one-off or a sustained trend will need to be confirmed in coming quarterly results.