'Super Capacitor' VINATech, piercing the U.S. storage market...Green light for moving to list on KOSDAQ

VINATech, the Konex listed leading supplier of supercapacitors (fast-charging devices), is expected to record sales of more than 30% this year, bringing US solid-state drive (SSD) storage companies as its customers. Its earnings forecast for the next year is also bright. It is a green light for its move to the KOSDAQ market.

On the 13th, VINATech said it expects to achieve sales of W31.0bn and operating profit of W4.0bn this year. If it comes to earnings, sales will increase by more than 30% and operating profit by more than 260% compared to those of last year.

Supercapacitors are auxiliary power supplies that save energy then provide instantaneous high-power output. It provides auxiliary power when the power supply is unstable or disconnected for various reasons. Compared to lithium-ion batteries, the energy density is as low as one-hundredth, but the instantaneous output is 100 times stronger, which is the characteristic of supercapacitors. Vehicle black boxes and navigation systems are equipped with VINATech small supercapacitors.

According to VINATech, "This year, we succeeded in supplying supercapacitors for SSDs for servers to US large storage companies this year, which is the reason behind the sales increase.” This year, VINATech's SSD supercapacitor-related sales are estimated at 4 billion to 5 billion won. VINATech also supplied German companies this year with supercapacitors for automotive safety devices that operate airbags in a park mode. The company explained that it had failed to fulfill orders for car safety devices due to SSD product orders.

VINATech expects to see a big sales growth next year if the production plan of the subsidiary in Vietnam, which started mass production in September, is completed as scheduled. A company official said, "Fuel cell sales are also showing an uptrend, so we expect annual sales to reach 46 billion won next year." In the past 7 to 8 years, VINATech’s sales were tied to 20 billion won.

VINATech, founded in 1999, is headquartered in Jeonju, Jeollabuk-do. In 2013, it was listed on KONEX. It is preparing to be listed on KOSDAQ next year. The global supercapacitor market is estimated at about 1 trillion won per year. Among those figures, the size of the small market involving VINATech is participating is about 100 billion won. The estimated market share is 15%.