KOSDAQ-listed SMCore said it is accelerating efforts to expand competitiveness in semiconductor logistics automation and Robotics.
SMCore is a factory automation company that conducts semiconductor process logistics and general logistics such as tires, petrochemicals, and pharmaceuticals as its main businesses. In Sep. last year, it was separated from SK Group and acquired by smart factory solution company M2I. At the regular shareholders meeting held on Mar. last month, the company changed its name to "MX Robotics" to reflect its future business vision.
An SMCore IR official attended Kiwoom Securities Corp Day on Mar. 31 and said, "This year, sales in the semiconductor sector will expand in earnest." The official expected semiconductor sales to increase to the 15 billion–20 billion won range this year and said the company could reach 40 billion won next year.
In Jan., the company won a 9.2 billion won project to build a raw material warehouse at the SK hynix Yongin Semiconductor Cluster. SMCore said it expects sales to increase as it expands equipment supply, which had been focused on back-end processes, to front-end processes.
It put forward the wafer transport system (OHT) as a next-generation growth engine. OHT at SK hynix is effectively monopolized by Japan's Daifuku, and at Samsung Electronics by SEMES, making it a market with high entry barriers. The company said it is currently designing OHTs and plans to produce prototypes in the first half of this year, build a test line in the second half, and begin deliveries to outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) companies starting next year.
The company is also preparing semiconductor process autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) with the goal of winning mass-production orders in the second half. It expects that if new robot lineups such as OHT and AMR get into full swing, a re-rating of its valuation from an existing automation equipment maker to a robotics company will be possible.
The problem is low profitability. A shareholder who attended the event asked, "The company's cost of sales ratio has been around 90% for years at a high level. Isn't this structurally a low value-added business?"
In response, the company said, "Given the nature of the logistics automation industry, the proportion of large structures is high, so the cost ratio is inevitably high, but profitability can improve as the share of semiconductor orders and the India market increases." It added that if full-fledged sales occur in OHT, the margin structure could improve.
Regarding funding and the possibility of a paid-in capital increase, the company said, "Parent company M2I plans to proceed with an investment of about 10 billion won through a third-party allotment paid-in capital increase within this year." It emphasized that, considering the existing order backlog and the trend of improving results, the funding burden is not significant.