Small Reactors, Big Bets: Doosan Enerbility's SMR Revenue to Soar Nearly 10-Fold

[Korea Financial Times, Jung Jina] Doosan Enerbility's revenue from small modular reactors (SMRs) is expected to surpass KRW 6 trillion by 2031. With SMR order backlogs projected to begin translating into revenue in 2027, the company's SMR sales are forecast to grow nearly tenfold within four years.

An SMR is a reactor built by scaling down a conventional large-scale nuclear power plant. While its power generation capacity is smaller, its components are pre-manufactured at a factory and assembled on-site, allowing for shorter construction periods and enabling installation directly adjacent to power-intensive facilities such as data centers. The market has been expanding rapidly as major tech firms, including Amazon and Google, have recently selected SMRs as a power source for their AI data centers.

Order backlogs are expected to begin converting into revenue starting in 2027. Meritz Securities projects that Doosan Enerbility's SMR revenue will start at KRW 702.0 billion in 2027, then rise to KRW 1.4908 trillion in 2028, KRW 2.6825 trillion in 2029, and KRW 3.7677 trillion in 2030. By 2031, it is expected to reach KRW 6.6734 trillion — more than a ninefold increase from 2027, the first year revenue is recorded, within just four years.

First Formal SMR Main Equipment Order Secured, Among Other Achievements — Earnings, Revenue and Share Price Growth Anticipated

Actual contract results support these projections. In the first quarter, Doosan Enerbility signed an SMR main equipment contract with TerraPower. The deal, worth roughly KRW 100 billion annually, marks the company's first formal main equipment contract in the SMR business, going beyond earlier reservation agreements for materials production or core component supply.

Earnings have also been on an upward trajectory. Last year's quarterly operating profit fluctuated — KRW 142.5 billion in Q1, KRW 271.1 billion in Q2, KRW 137.0 billion in Q3, and KRW 212.1 billion in Q4 — but annual revenue reached KRW 17.0579 trillion, up 5.1% from the previous year.

In the first quarter of this year, the company posted revenue of KRW 4.2611 trillion and operating profit of KRW 233.5 billion, with operating profit up 63.9% year-on-year. Notably, the Enerbility division's operating profit turned positive at KRW 57.0 billion.

Share prices moved in tandem with earnings. The stock, which averaged KRW 76,852 in December last year, climbed to an average of KRW 99,876 by March this year and surged as high as KRW 136,400 in early May. It has since pulled back into the KRW 70,000 range amid profit-taking.

Aggressive SMR Investment — Facility Expansion and Partnership Agreements Underway

Doosan Enerbility is investing KRW 806.8 billion to build a dedicated SMR factory at its plant site in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province. Once completed, the facility will raise annual production capacity from the current 12 units to 20 units. The plant is reportedly still in the basic design phase after completing its contract with a design firm, with a construction start date yet to be determined.

The company has also forged a series of partnerships with U.S. SMR developers, including NuScale Power and X-energy. It signed a reservation agreement with X-energy to supply core forged components for 16 units of the Xe-100 reactor, and, following a materials production contract with NuScale Power, continues sales efforts to secure equipment manufacturing orders.

These partnerships align with broader South Korea-U.S. cooperation on SMR projects. Doosan Enerbility Chairman Park Geewon, after signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on SMR business cooperation with Amazon Web Services (AWS), X-energy, and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power in August last year, said the company would faithfully fulfill its role based on its proven manufacturing capabilities so that the agreement could serve as a model case for energy industry cooperation between the two countries.

Riding the Wave of Rising Global Power Demand

Doosan Enerbility's SMR business expansion is underpinned by rising power demand worldwide. As data center electricity consumption grows alongside the spread of artificial intelligence (AI) and electric vehicles, global power generation capacity is projected to rise from 10,741 gigawatts (GW) this year to 14,702 GW by 2030 and 17,890 GW by 2035.

The United States has announced a policy to expand its nuclear power capacity to approximately 400 GW by 2050, while the United Kingdom, Romania, and other countries are also accelerating SMR adoption.

The South Korean government is likewise backing SMR development. A special act to promote and support the development of small modular reactors passed the National Assembly's plenary session in February and is set to take effect in September this year. The law, passed with bipartisan support, includes measures to accelerate SMR technology development and demonstration and to designate special zones for the purpose. The government has also included plans in its 11th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand to demonstrate commercial-scale SMR deployment of 0.7 GW by 2035.



Jung Jina (urzinnie@fntimes.com)