ITM to enter EV battery pack business
It will secure results within 3 years
Battery protective circuit company ITM Semiconductor will enter the battery pack market for electric vehicles (EV) and energy storage systems (ESS), the company said.
It will also begin battery protective circuit and pack businesses in notebooks, power tools and wireless cleaners next year, it said.
It plans to show results in EV and ESS battery packs within three years, ITM Semiconductor said.
The company will also become an original design manufacturer (ODM) for e-cigarettes to expand sales.
It was preparing system-in-package (SIP) for notebooks and power tools. These will contribute to sales starting next year.
ITM has so far focused on protective circuits and packs for small batteries used in smartphones, tablets and wireless earphones.
It exclusively supplied protective circuits to Apple last year for the AirPods Pro. The company also supplies them to Samsung for the Galaxy S and Note series of smartphones.
However, it has been looking for new growth areas due to the smartphone and wearable market slowing down in growth in recent years.
ITM is also planning to expand protective circuit supply to Apple. Last year it supplied for three models and this years four. Next year it will supply for seven products made by Cupertino.
It is also offering protection module package to Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo. The package integrates protection IC, MOSFET and printed circuit board. It replaces protection circuit module used in the past and saves production cost.
The company wrapped up construction of its fourth factory in Vietnam in September. It will produce system-in-package, protection module package and protection circuit module as well as battery packs and sensors. The four factories combined it with its Ochang factory in South Korea can produce 12 million units of protective circuit a year. Production capacity will expand to 13.2 million units next year.
ITM Semiconductor is expecting sales of 400 billion won this year. Next year it is aiming for 500 billion won backed by the new businesses.