Superconductor claim raises concerns, warnings in stock market

[Photo by Yonhap]

The recent announcement of a claimed discovery of LK-99, the first room temperature superconductor, has become a hot topic among industries and investors in South Korea.

Amid prevailing skepticism and caution in the mainstream scientific community, the ongoing dispute surrounding the reliability of the LK-99 claims has become more intense as major companies, described as the partners for Quantum Energy Research Centre, denied any relation to the LK-99 developer.

As of Thursday, a group of partners listed as Quantum Energy Research Centre included Samsung SDI Co., LG Innotek Co., and Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., with several academic institutions, such as Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology and Korea University.

However, the companies listed as partners refuted the claim, saying the partnerships were groundless. LG Innotek Co. and Samsung Electro-Mechanics are said to seek clarification from the lab regarding their inclusion as partners. Samsung SDI and POSCO also stated that they had “not engaged in any form of cooperation with the institute to date.”

The website has remained closed down.

Mainstream scientists have been monitoring the situation in a cautious manner.

“The material demonstrated no negative resistance, called Meissner effect, in its videos and research paper,” the Korea Institute of Applied Superconductivity and Cryogenics said in a statement, arguing that the LK-99 is not a room-temperature superconductor.

However, one of the co-authors in the LK-99 study denied the argument.

“LK-99 cannot be explained unless it is understood as a superconducting phenomenon, and the research team will unveil the data at the next American Physical Society conference,” said Kim Hyun-tak, a professor at the College of William & Mary.

The superconductor issue has spread over the stock market. As investors turned away from secondary battery stocks to superconductor-related stocks to make early bets on them, the stocks surged from two or three folds in a week.

According to the Korea Exchange on Thursday, Sunam CO. and Duksung Co., two stocks related to superconductors, closed at their upper limit prices. Mobiis Inc. also saw a significant increase of 19.4 percent from the previous trading day.

“Investors should be cautious about the themed stocks, as the newly discovered material remains unknown, which requires scientific verifications,” said Han Ji-young, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities Co.