mPlus Breaks Beyond EVs into 'Defense Batteries'... "First Order from a European Global Player"

[Financial News]  mPlus, a company specializing in secondary-battery assembly equipment, is moving beyond electric vehicles (EVs) into the market for special-purpose batteries used in aerospace and defense. Amid a slowdown in global EV investment, the company aims to broaden its customer portfolio into high-value-added battery segments that require high levels of safety and reliability.
mPlus said on the 6th that it had won a contract from Company A, a global European battery maker, to supply notching and stacking equipment for prismatic batteries. This is the company's first transaction with Company A. Beginning with this supply contract, mPlus aims to expand its cooperation with the company and increase the value of future orders to approximately KRW 25 billion.
Company A supplies industrial battery solutions to global markets, including the aerospace, defense, medical, communications, oil and gas, and transportation sectors. Unlike batteries for general consumers or EVs, special-purpose batteries are used in markets where high levels of safety and reliability are required.
The key significance of the contract is that mPlus has expanded its end markets from EVs and energy storage systems (ESS) to defense and aerospace. The company has built a lineup of battery assembly equipment for pouch-type, prismatic, and all-solid-state batteries. This order gives mPlus a new global customer reference outside the mass-production EV equipment market.
An industry official in the secondary-battery equipment sector said, "As investment in EV batteries slows, equipment makers are also expanding their order bases into non-EV areas such as ESS and defense. Because batteries for defense and aerospace applications face stringent quality and reliability requirements, entering a new customer is significant in terms of expanding references going forward."
The equipment being supplied consists of a notching system and a stacking system, both of which are essential to the prismatic-battery assembly process. The company explained that its high-speed notching and stacking technologies can reduce capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operating expenses (OPEX).
mPlus's performance is also improving. On a consolidated basis, the company recorded approximately KRW 14.2 billion in operating profit and approximately KRW 15.4 billion in net profit during the first half of this year. Net profit increased 51.9% from the same period a year earlier. Its gross profit margin also improved by 3.7 percentage points year on year to 28.2%.
A company representative emphasized, "This order is significant because our technological competitiveness has been recognized by a global battery company in the aerospace and defense sectors. We plan to expand our cooperation with Company A while continuing to broaden our customer portfolio into high-value-added markets such as defense and aerospace." 


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