Industrial materials are feed materials for all industrial production sectors, which help spread and promote the development of other industries such as machine industry, information technology, electronics, chemicals, high-tech industries, etc.

According to experts, the demands in consumption of the industrial materials, including aluminum alloy for many industries; (tungsten) alloy for electronics, high-tech industries, defense; copper for civil industries, defense; tin for energy industry, electronics, mobile phone, components, accessories are sharply increasing, even double-digit growth in the next 10 years.

Staying abreast of these trends, Masan High-Tech Materials (MHT) completed the acquisition of H.C. Starck Tungsten Powders and established strategic alliance with Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, a Japanese Corporation, through an investment of $90 million, equivalent to 10% of MHT’s shares in 2020.

Mr. Craig Richard Bradshaw – MHT CEO said that the transactions have validated the transformation of Masan High-Tech Materials into a vertically integrated high-tech tungsten platform and asserted its position as global scale high-tech materials producer.

Mr. Craig Richard Bradshaw – Masan High-Tech Materials CEO.

“Global demand for materials has been changing. Therefore, we need to position ourselves - as a participant in the market - by transforming our finite assets into assets which can be exploited and used permanently”, Mr. Craig Bradshaw said and shared that MHT Management Team is implementing a sustainable development roadmap based on its technology platform with the goal of gradually taking the market share in the global high-tech industrial materials market.

In order to realize this goal, MHT CEO revealed a number of improvements being adopted by the Company in the business operations, typically artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

For the production operations, the application of AI has assisted the production sites to increase production by 30% compared to the past, while using the same equipment. 

“This means that we can produce many products of the same type with lower cost because we do not have to spend more on capital expenditures. The results will gradually improve in 2 years when we install AI on different equipment”, said Mr. Craig Bradshaw.

Previously, MHT invested additionally two high-tech process lines with the total capital of over USD 9 million, including Fluorspar flotation circuit and high gravity Tungsten recovery circuit in 2017. These are state-of-the-art production lines in the world at that time.

According to MHT CEO, these investments have helped the Company increase the product quality to optimize the resources.

For customers, Mr. Hady Seyeda - MHT Deputy CEO - said that the Company is aiming at providing tailored-made solutions and products appropriate to demands of each specific customer, instead of simply providing raw materials for production.

“Many countries have planned to gradually realize the net Zero goal with specific milestones by 2035, 2040, 2045. That’s the reason why when we work with our customers, we always ask them “what do you expect from your product today”, “what do you expect from your product in the next 2-5 years?”. For many customers, we work with their R&D teams to understand their expectations in the next 5-10 years with their future products”, said Hady. 

According to Hady, MHT's continued investment in R&D and innovations is also delivering value with new customer-centric products specifically tailored for the electric mobility and 3D printing segments.

“A typical example for that is additive manufacturing. Plastic 3D printing is easy, but if you try to 3D print heavy metal, it is much more difficult because there are many issues with properties in this process. For example, to work with heavy metal in 3D printing, you have got to make it round from triangle-shaped forms, and therefore the tungsten metal can flow like water to be effectively used in 3D printer. Currently, no one can make tungsten powders flow like water, but we can”, said Hady.

Beyond these product ranges, the Company has also developed new analytical equipment which is now in prototype stage after having been patented in late 2021. In recycling, MHT has filed additional patent applications for new recycling processes for cobalt bearing sludges and battery black mass.

These new processes will enable the recycling of various hard-cutting tool sludges and battery black mass with a lower environmental footprint than current recycling processes.

“This is as a potential game changer for environmentally sustainable recycling of copper, cobalt, nickel, manganese, lithium, etc.”, said Mr. Hady.

With a strong commitment to investing in the technology and innovation across all processing chains, MHT continues to position itself as a leading high-tech materials producer and is highly recognized at both national and international levels with 16 domestic patents, 87 international patents, 54 application patents, 40 ongoing scientific projects, and 32 projects in the ideation stage.

In regards of the strategic vision in the period of 2022-2025, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of MHT Mr. Danny Le said that MHT will be more than a supplier of strategic high-tech materials.

“The Company will partner with disruptive consumer technology platforms to create direct-to-consumer products where tungsten is a key element. Most importantly, we envision a circular platform where we can recycle these products to drive sustainability and productivity.” said Danny Le.

Accordingly, in 2022, the company will continue to focus on recycling raw materials, implementing carbon-neutrality initiatives and promoting the benefits of the circular economy.