ASM Chart Thread, page-11824

The previous Chief Executive David Woodall talked the talk in 2021-22, and really did pump the company, both the capabilities of the metallisation plant and financials behind Dubbo. At the time I was much more interested in the Korean plant, (I liked the tec), and from his regular announcements and interviews the perception was very much, 'it's all systems go!' This never eventuated, he fell on his sword and left the company, (I'm presuming he had to take a hit for the team), and was replaced by Rowena who initially walked the walk but hasn't followed through with anything of substance since.

As shareholders we are left in the dark but I believe the numbers simply don't stack up. The cost to refine in Korea is simply too high vs the Chinese and they were banking on the ESG/Green card to obtain more customers... or a further decline in relations with China and the West. Whilst I am pulling a lof of these thoughts out of my rear end, that is all I have to play with because we don't actually know what is going on in the background. Apart from generalised statements, we have no idea what actually is going on. They have secured no contracts of a decent size, no strong partnerships for feedstock supply when/if, (big if), Dubbo comes online, so what is going to happen with this company?

My one last hope is the Trump card saves us all and his protectionist play assists ASM in setting up a second plant in the US and we develop stronger and more substantial relations there. Or maybe China will do something silly and invade Taiwan and that will create a demand for outside of China rare earths products.

As an investor I've learned a lot from what I did with ASM, (and a couple other greedy investments over the last 2 years), and will never invest in another company that doesn't have an established revenue stream and some decent financial metrics. In future I'll leave the risk vs return to others and remain focused on buying boring fully franked dividend paying stocks.