Recently, many news stories about “room temperature superconductivity” not only made waves in academia, but also caused an “earthquake” in the secondary market.
In July, a paper from a Korean research team published on the preprint platform arXiv stated that Korean scientists synthesized the world's first room-temperature atmospheric pressure superconducting material — modified lead apatite crystal structure LK-99 (LK-99 for short). The material's superconducting transition critical temperature at normal pressure is 127 °C (400K), which means it can show superconductivity at room temperature at room temperature at room temperature at room temperature.
The resistance of superconductors is almost zero, and there is almost no loss of electrical energy during transmission, so technology that realizes superconductivity at room temperature will play a key role in the sustainable development of humans, and will also make controllable nuclear fusion at room temperature possible.
Stimulated by news from various countries about the progress of room-temperature superconductivity tests, individual conceptual stocks related to the secondary market are making a big splash. In the Hong Kong stock market, Pujiang International (02060), which has shares in Shanghai International Superconductor Technology Co., Ltd., opened higher on August 2, rising more than 25% intraday; Minmetals resources (01208), including the raw material lead ore, rose 4.91%, and China's non-ferrous metals (01258) rose 4.38%. Meanwhile, in the US stock market, China Natural Resources (CHNR.US) also surged 23.47% on the previous trading day.
In response, a public-funded semiconductor industry researcher pointed out in an interview that experimental results on room temperature superconductivity have not been widely recognized by the scientific community. Even if established, they cannot be used commercially in the short term, so individual investors need to be careful when entering the market.
In addition, a number of listed companies related to the room-temperature superconductivity concept also responded that they had no related business or technology. Pujiang International responded that its joint venture, Shanghai International Superconductor, is the world's leading high-temperature superconductor company, has been deeply involved in this industry for more than ten years. The world's first 1.2-kilometer high-temperature superconducting cable developed and manufactured by it has been continuously and stably supplying power to 46,000 users in central Shanghai for nearly 500 days; in the future, Pujiang International will continue to promote the implementation of superconductivity in products and technology applications such as power transmission, nuclear magnetic resonance, and controllable nuclear fusion.
“Room temperature superconducting” materials will benefit many industries
Since 2023, news about “room temperature superconductivity” has repeatedly appeared in the press. First, in March, Professor Ranga Dias of the University of Rochester claimed that room temperature superconductivity had been achieved, then a paper published by Professor Wen Haihu's team at Nanjing University overturned this conclusion;
In July, the Korean research team announced that they had synthesized LK-99, the world's first room-temperature atmospheric pressure superconducting material, but a member of the research team later said in an interview with the media that the research team was not ready to publish the paper, but that one member published the paper without the consent of other authors. The team has now requested that the paper be removed from the shelves. According to information, this study actually complements the superconductor paper published in a Korean journal in April this year, and it has already been reviewed by an international journal.
Meanwhile, while Korea's room-temperature superconductivity paper has been proven to be flawed, reproduction experiments by scientists from many countries still show some signs of optimism. Sinéad Griffin, a researcher at America's top laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), wrote an article stating that it used density functional theory (DFT) and GGA+U methods to provide a theoretical basis for the Korean team's “room temperature atmospheric pressure superconducting material”; the US Taiji Quantum Company published photos saying that a newly discovered room temperature superconducting material is a fragile graphene foam material; Russian scientist Iris Alexandra said on social media that it has successfully prepared an LK-99 crystal with magnetic resistance at room temperature .
In terms of scientific principles, superconductivity means that materials conduct current without any resistance. Superconducting materials have zero resistance and complete anti-magnetic properties, which means that current can flow losslessly through the material, while external magnetic fields cannot penetrate the material, which can greatly reduce the loss of power transmission and storage and improve energy efficiency and reliability.
However, at the current level of research technology, superconducting materials can only be implemented at extremely low temperatures or extremely high pressure conditions, which hampers practical applications due to their high cost. For example, at present, the transition temperature of most superconducting materials is below 40K (-233℃); only two unconventional superconducting material systems, copper oxide superconductors and nickel oxide superconductors, which reach 77K (-196℃) in the liquid nitrogen temperature zone, have been discovered.
According to the Zhitong Finance App, once superconductivity can be achieved at room temperature, many industries including transportation, energy, and medicine will benefit: in the energy industry, room temperature superconductivity is beneficial to controllable nuclear fusion research progress; in the infrastructure industry, it will set off a new wave of infrastructure in global power networks; in the medical industry, it can make medical equipment such as nuclear magnetic resonance imaging more convenient, accurate, and low-cost; in the computing industry, it can provide higher computing speed and storage capacity for traditional computers, reduce heat dissipation and energy consumption problems, and also make quantum computers more stable and faster Operates quickly and in a scalable manner.
Guo Mingyi, a well-known fruit chain analyst, said, “There is no visibility of the commercialization of room-temperature and atmospheric pressure superconductors, but if they can be commercialized smoothly in the future, it will have a disruptive impact on product design in the computer and consumer electronics fields... The superconductivity state (loss of resistance) characteristics will disrupt existing product design and the use of materials and technologies, such as: there is no longer a need for cooling systems, optical fiber/high-end CCL (copper clad plates) to be replaced, and the threshold for advanced manufacturing processes is lowered, etc., so that even mobile devices as small as iPhones can have quantum operations comparable to computers Arithmetic ability.”
Many individual stocks in the superconductor-related industry chain are on the rise
In Hong Kong stocks, there are also quite a few individual stocks related to the superconductivity concept. For example, Pujiang International (02060)'s business mainly includes cables, prestressed materials, and superconducting cables. The market share of cables and prestressed materials has long been at the forefront of the industry. Although the company itself has no news about room temperature superconductivity, it has taken a stake in Shanghai International Superconductivity Technology Co., Ltd. The latter's main product is second-generation high-temperature superconducting strips.
According to public disclosure, Shanghai International Superconductor Technology Co., Ltd. is one of the international producers that can mass-produce and sell high-temperature superconducting strips over 100 kilometers per year. The company's strip products all rank in the top 20% of the world in terms of performance indicators, far exceeding the cost performance ratio of similar domestic and foreign enterprises. Since 2019, employees of Shanghai Superconductor have participated in the design of China's first kilometer-scale high-temperature superconducting cable demonstration project. The project is the largest electrical superconducting cable transmission project in China, with a localization rate of 100% of the core technology.
According to the Zhitong Finance App, Pujiang International signed a capital injection agreement with Shanghai Superconductor in July 2020 through an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of ChaoAO Investment, paying 166 million yuan in cash to subscribe for 40% of Shanghai Superpower's shares. In addition, other shareholders of Shanghai Superconductor include Shanghai Cable, China's leading superconducting cable company, China's state-owned network network, which has extensive experience in building power grids in China, and Shanghai Electric Power Transmission and Distribution.
Affected by delays in most projects in 2022, Pujiang International achieved total revenue of RMB 2.152 billion for the full year of 2022, down 0.21% year on year; net profit of 182 million yuan, down 16.44% year on year. Judging from past performance, the company's revenue and net profit fluctuated greatly, and the stock price has been hovering around HK$0.5 since November 2022.
In terms of superconductor-related industry chains, stock prices have also fluctuated greatly recently, including the upstream strip (mainly lead, copper, etc.), China Nonferrous Mining (01258), etc., while downstream include Global New Materials International (06616)'s new energy battery insulation and flame retardant component products based on synthetic mica that can be used in superconducting cable insulation, also involving ceramic materials, crystalline silicon growth furnaces, magnets, cables, etc.
Among them, Minmetals Resources (01208) has now risen from a low of HK$2.19 on June 30 to around HK$2.9, an increase of about 32.42%; China's non-ferrous mining industry has also risen from a low of HK$3.3 on May 25 to HK$4.23, an increase of 28.18%.
In terms of practical applications, China's relevant level of practice in the field of superconductivity is among the highest in the world. In 2013, the first domestic set of 30-meter, 35-kV, low-temperature insulated high-temperature superconducting cables led by the Shanghai Cable Research Institute was connected to Baosteel, making China one of the few countries in the world that successfully built a low-temperature insulated high-temperature superconducting cable project;
In 2021, China Southern Power Grid completed the net-connected operation of a 400-meter superconducting cable in Shenzhen, the Tianjin Futong 100-meter second-generation superconducting demonstration line, and the world's first 35 kV kilometer superconducting cable demonstration project was officially put into operation in the Xuhui commercial core area of Shanghai, setting a precedent for the application of kilometer superconducting cables in urban core areas around the world;
In 2023, China's first three-axis superconducting cable, developed under the leadership of China Southern Power Grid, successfully passed a heavy load test in the Futian Central Area of Shenzhen. It was officially put into operation in September 2021. It crosses the central business district of Shenzhen and is located in the basement of Shenzhen's tallest building, Ping An Financial Center. It has a total length of 400 meters and has been running continuously and steadily for over 16 months.
Is the “room temperature superconductivity” concept “flameout”?
On August 3, according to the news, the top academic journal “Science” (Science) recently reported that one of the preprints of the South Korean team's two papers on the potential superconducting material “LK-99” may be withdrawn. Coupled with the impact of recent news from many listed companies that investors denied involving superconductor-related businesses, AMSC.US (AMSC.US) opened on Wednesday local time and fell all the way down. It fell more than 30% intraday, and finally closed down more than 28%. Many stocks, such as Zhongfu Industrial (600595.SH), Falsheng (000890.SZ), and Yongding Co., Ltd. (600105.SH), hit a standstill for a while. By the close of trading on August 3, Pujiang International's latest stock price was around HK$0.45, down nearly 30% from its highest point.
Relevant market analysts warned that some of the soaring superconducting concept stocks were mainly due to short-term increases in free capital. By the end of Tuesday's session, institutions that had previously entered the market had already sold in large numbers. Behind the “flameout” of the superconductivity concept, the meaning of market capital speculation is even stronger. Long-term investment decisions still need to be based on rational and in-depth research. Currently, more research is needed to verify the viability and economy of room-temperature superconducting technology.