INKTEC's $30M A YEAR ON INK REFILLS & PRINTED CIRCUT BOARDS

[Anonymous]

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2010/01/21/201001210016.asp
KOREA’s INKTEC DOES $
30Mil. A YEAR ON INK REFILLS AND PRINTED CIRCUT BOARDS
Established
in 1992, InkTec gained fame in Korea during the 1997-98 Asian financial
crisis by selling ink refills, which were particularly popular among
college students who were sensitive to high costs of ink cartridges.The
company’s revenue mostly came from sales of refill inks for desktop PCs
in the past decade. Now it aims to shift its focus to a new business
line — printed electronics — in 2010, aiming to raise its revenue by
more than 50 percent, the head of the company said yesterday.”We have a
competitive edge in printed electronics area where no other company has
technology,” InkTec CEO Chung Kwang-choon told The Korea Herald.”Our
annual revenue is expected to increase at least 50 percent in 2010 and
the following years.”InkTec’s revenue from January to September in 2009
stood at 34.6 billion won ($30.7 million), nearing the 37.2 billion won
recorded in the whole of 2008.The 2009 revenue is expected to see a 30
percent year-on-year growth from 2008, the chief executive said.

Revenue
is expected to increase about 50 percent to 75 billion won in 2010 from
an estimated 48.7 billion won revenue in 2009, as the printed
electronics business is set to bring sizable income in earnest, he
added.Printed electronics refers to a set of printing methods which can
be applied to almost all electronics products, including components for
mobile phones, LCDs and PDPs, solar cells, flexible printed circuit
boards (FPCBs) and radio frequency identification (RFID) tag antennas.

InkTec’s
key technology is making silver electronic inks transparent, just as
melting sugar in waters, to apply the inks to various surfaces of the
electronic components at a lower sintering temperature, Chung
said.InkTec, which started developing transparent electronic inks in
2002, completed development of the core technology in 2005. But there
was not enough hardware in the market to apply the inks at that time,
company officials said.

The company started production of
transparent silver ink in March 2007.
Silver ink, when heat is
applied, can be used for glossy cell phone cases and digital camera
cases. The ink can be also made into reflective sheets for LCDs, as well
as shielding materials to prevent electromagnetic interference (EMI) in
electronics devices such as handsets and radios.

InkTec recently
announced that it has agreed with SD Flex, a joint venture between
Cheil Industries and U.S. chemical maker DuPont, to jointly develop EMI
film and start production within the first half of the year.Among
various segments, InkTec will particularly focus on reflective sheets
for large-sized LCDs for TV screens this year, although no local firm
has yet entered the market so far.”Reflective sheets for (small-sized)
LCDs have earned 70 percent of the new business areas’ revenue last
year. This year, we will try large-sized reflective sheets for LCDs,”
Chung said.

On bright business prospects, the company’s stock
price on Kosdaq jumped by the daily limit of 15 percent to 10,950 won on
Monday, compared with 7,625 won on Jan. 4. The stock price closed at
10,750 won on Tuesday.”Because there is few competitors in the local
printed electronics market, InkTec’s future is bright,” said Heo
Do-hang, an analyst with HanMag Securities.According to data by
IDTechEx, an independent global research firm, the size of the printed
electronics market is expected to jump to $6.5 billion in 2010 from $3.3
billion in 2009.

As 63 percent of the revenue comes from
exports, the strengthening of the won and the rising price of silver are
only risks the company faces this year, Chung said.”As long as the won
rises in a gradually manner so that we can prepare, the won’s
appreciation will not be a big problem.”
INKTEC DOES $30M
YEAR , INK REFILLS & PRINTED CIRCUT BOARDS

[Author]

February 1, 2010 at 9:21 AM