[Featured Stock] SMEC's Machine Tools in High Demand in US and Europe... "Continued Growth with AI Edge Robots"

SMEC, a provider of machine tool and robot automation solutions, is showing strong performance. The news that its operating profit up to the third quarter of this year has surpassed last year's full-year results appears to have influenced its stock price.

As of 2:31 PM on the 14th, SMEC was trading at 4,255 KRW, up 585 KRW (15.94%) from the previous trading day.

SMEC announced the day before that on a consolidated basis, it recorded sales of 133.7 billion KRW and operating profit of 16.7 billion KRW for the cumulative third quarter. It explained that it exceeded last year's performance and achieved its annual target early. Compared to the same period last year, sales increased by 11.6% and operating profit rose by 139%. On a separate basis, third-quarter sales and operating profit were 133 billion KRW and 15.4 billion KRW, respectively.

A company representative stated, "As a result of expanding the overseas sales network for machine tools over several years, performance has grown significantly due to increased exports," adding, "Exports to the United States, Europe, and Turkey have expanded, highlighting the growth in sales and profits."

Last month, SMEC participated in the world's largest production technology exhibition (EMO2023) held in Germany with its largest-ever presence, focusing on marketing, which has raised expectations for fourth-quarter performance.

As a new business, SMEC is accelerating the development of robot automation process technology for spent battery recycling and AI edge computing industrial robot intelligence technology. It is also concentrating on developing robot automation process technology for the discharge and dismantling process, a pretreatment step in spent battery recycling, putting effort into new growth engines.

SMEC CEO Choi Young-seop said, "Through aggressive marketing, we are expanding market share, and the fruits of years of research and development have led to market-leading technology in machine tools and robot automation solutions, which is now translating into substantial sales growth." He added, "We will further strengthen exports by securing additional overseas bases to continuously secure orders," and "We are preparing to set new record-high performance not only in the fourth quarter of this year but also next year."