2024-02-17 22:00:01
Semiconductor vacuum robot ranked first in Korea
Interview with Kim Won-kyung, CEO of Raontech“Diversifying customers and strengthening overseas sales
Challenge to more than double operating profit this year
R&D is life… “Invest 10% of annual sales”Performance may fluctuate depending on the semiconductor cycle
Seeing is worth seeing. It is better to see something once than to hear it a hundred times. In order to alleviate the information imbalance amidst the flood of fake news, a ‘fighting ant’ with 17 years and 6 months of stock investment experience directly visits listed companies. Review the company’s business status, meet with management, and resolve investors’ questions. ‘Battle ants’ is a word he usually uses to describe a situation in which he invests in stocks to win every time, based on the idea that ‘stocks are a battlefield.’ I am well aware that the pain of loss when investing in stocks is greater than that of anyone else, so I am writing this article today from the perspective of an individual investor. <편집자주>
Seo Jun-ho, a member of Raontech’s purchasing materials team, is introducing the company’s history. Suwon = Reporter Hyunjoo Yoon “We will challenge to grow sales by more than 30% and double operating profit this year by diversifying our customer base and expanding our presence in the U.S. and China.” Kim Won-kyung, CEO of Raontech (age 59), said this in an interview with the Korea Economic Daily on the 16th. Raon Tech is the No. 1 semiconductor vacuum robot company in Korea. We mainly deal with major domestic semiconductor equipment companies such as TES, Wonik IPS, and Jusung Engineering, and our final customers are Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Intel. The head office is located at 88-4, Saneop-ro 156beon-gil, Gwonseon-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do. Raontech headquarters located at 88-4, Saneop-ro 156beon-gil, Gwonseon-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do. Suwon = Reporter Hyunjoo Yoon It produces and sells semiconductor manufacturing robots and automation systems (factory automation), and is famous for Korea’s highest level of semiconductor vacuum robot technology and Korea’s only wafer transfer vacuum robot. Vacuum robots are used in oxidation, etching, thin film, and metal wiring processes among the eight major semiconductor processes. A small conference room in the Raon Tech office building. Suwon = Reporter Hyunjoo Yoon’s flagship product, ‘Semiconductor Robot and Automation Platform’, includes the EFEM (Equipment Front End Module), which transports wafers in the semiconductor manufacturing line, and the entire backbone, which transports wafers in a vacuum environment. Quality management team members are concentrating on their work. Suwon = Reporter Hyunjoo Yoon The processing process of wafers, a semiconductor material, begins with drawing a circuit in the photo process. Afterwards, semiconductors are manufactured through processing through etching, deposition, ion implantation, and thin film formation. When a wafer is input into a semiconductor fab (manufacturing line), it travels a distance of tens of kilometers in a vacuum and is completed through up to 700 processes over 50 to 60 days. Raontech is making the only vacuum robot in Korea that transports wafers in a vacuum environment. Kim Won-kyung, CEO of Raontech, is shouting out fighting after an interview with the Korea Economic Daily. Suwon = Reporter Hyunjoo Yoon CEO Kim is said to have been developing robots at the former Daewoo Heavy Industries for 10 years (1990 to 1999), but turned to entrepreneurship when the robot business was discontinued due to company restructuring. He founded Technonet, the predecessor of the company, on March 14, 2000. At the time, CEO Kim was 35 years old. He started a business with 100 million won, and grew it into a company with a market capitalization of 116.8 billion won (as of the 18th). CEO Kim likes to give meaning to numbers, and the company’s founding date was set on March 14 to commemorate the mathematical constant pi (π). Kim Kang-hoon, director of the business management team, is explaining the awards the company received. Suwon = Reporter Hyunjoo Yoon Accumulating technology related to semiconductor robots, he developed a semiconductor and display robot in 2003 (consigned development by Samsung Electronics). In 2011, vacuum robots were supplied to domestic semiconductor mass production lines. Vacuum robots must transport wafers at high temperatures (PM temperatures of 200 to 700 degrees) without generating particles, and it is important to reproduce the same position even when used for long periods of time and when temperatures rise. The management team’s employees are concentrating on their work. Suwon = Reporter Hyunjoo Yoon In 2015, we became the third company in the world to create an individually controlled vacuum robot (Individually Controlled 4 Arm), following Japan and the United States. The company evaluated, “This robot has four individually controlled arms, and precision has been doubled through process refinement, and wafer throughput has increased by 25%.” It is reported that global semiconductor companies demanding improved productivity are using it and are replacing robots from overseas competitors. We currently hold about 30 robot patents. Raontech employees are creating an individually controlled vacuum robot (VACTRA-Q) in a clean room. Suwon = Reporter Hyunjoo Yoon, CEO Kim said, “Overseas sales started in 2022 are weak, but they are showing results,” and added, “The proportion of overseas exports will jump significantly this year.” He added, “We are currently discussing cooperation plans with three major U.S. and Chinese semiconductor equipment companies, and we have begun receiving mass production orders from the largest Chinese company.” He said, “Operating profit is expected to more than double due to customer diversification.” Employees are manufacturing a wafer vacuum transfer module. Suwon = Reporter Hyunjoo Yoon Performance over the past four years has been good. It recorded its highest-ever performance in 2022 (sales of KRW 59.4 billion and operating profit of KRW 8.9 billion), up from KRW 18.4 billion in sales and KRW 1.1 billion in operating profit in 2020. Last year, it slowed down somewhat with sales of 34.5 billion won and operating profit of 1.9 billion won. The plan is to further increase sales this year by strengthening overseas expansion. CEO Kim said, “We expect active investment in semiconductor equipment to occur in the fourth quarter of this year,” and added, “We expect a quantum jump in performance next year.” This is because as investment by major semiconductor equipment companies increases, Raon Tech’s performance naturally increases. Employees are working at a company-affiliated research center. Suwon = Reporter Hyunjoo Yoon What does CEO Kim value most? He explained, “R&D (research and development) is life,” and “Only robots that can provide new value are put into the field immediately.” He added, “We invest 10% of our sales in R&D every year.” R&D personnel (40 people) account for 32% of the total workforce (125 people). Kim Jeong-tae, head of the human resources and general affairs team, uses the failure golf practice range, an in-house welfare facility, during lunch hours. Suwon = Reporter Hyunjoo Yoon, CEO Kim said, “In order to be chosen by semiconductor companies, we must differentiate ourselves from existing products,” and added, “We try to create only one product that others cannot imitate.” He also emphasized, “To survive in the semiconductor robot market, we must play on the global stage,” and added, “We will accelerate overseas sales by recruiting President Sang Jae-ho, a former executive director of Samsung Electronics and vice president of Lam Research Korea, in March of last year.” To this end, we have recruited global marketing, sales, and service personnel. Despite the aggressive management notice, the stock price has no strength. According to the Korea Exchange on the 18th, the stock price was 9,320 won, down 2.61% from the beginning of the year (9,570 won on January 2). Is the state considering stimulus measures? CEO Kim responded, “To improve shareholder value, we conducted a free capital increase in April 2022, and paid a cash dividend (50 won) at the end of the year in the same year.” He also promised, “We recently completed a KRW 3 billion trust contract for the purchase of treasury stock in September of last year to stabilize the stock price,” and promised, “We will make more efforts to improve shareholder value in the future.” Cafeteria, a rest area for employees. Suwon = The number of shares held by Yoon Hyun-joo is 12,534,234, with the largest shareholder being CEO Kim (21.05% stake) and 8 related parties owning 37.40% of the shares. As of the end of last year, institutions held 8.3% of the shares and other corporations held 6%. The treasury stock is 2.69%, or about 45% of the distributed volume. As of the end of last year, cash assets were 10.4 billion won and real estate assets were 12 billion won. The debt ratio was 49.02% as of the third quarter of last year. Raon Tech 1st floor lounge. Suwon = Reporter Hyunjoo Yoon CEO Kim said, “There are ups and downs in the semiconductor market, but it will continue to grow,” and pledged, “Currently, the global semiconductor robot market share is less than 3%, but we will increase our market share by strengthening product competitiveness and overseas sales.” However, in the case of the semiconductor industry, Raontech’s performance may slow down if investment is delayed by large companies such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Intel. Ha Yoon-soo, assistant manager of the business management team, is explaining the company’s vision. Suwon = Reporter Hyunjoo Yoon Jaemo Lee, CEO of Growth Research, said in a phone call with a reporter on the 18th, “Raontech is a company that produces wafer transfer robots and automation modules for semiconductor processing, and has grown based on steady technology development,” adding, “Investment in R&D of domestic small and medium-sized businesses.” Considering that the average ratio is 2.9%, the R&D investment ratio is high.” He also said, “Our biggest strength is that the technology entry barrier is high, and it is also noticeable that we have secured a large number of customers.” However, he advised, “Because our forward-facing customers are concentrated in semiconductors, performance volatility depending on the industry cycle is high,” and “It seems necessary to make efforts to expand the markets we can respond to in the future.” Employees are manufacturing and developing vacuum transfer modules in the clean room on the first floor. Suwon = Reporter Hyunjoo Yoon Does CEO Kim, who started a business with 100 million won at the age of 35 and grew it into a company valued at 110 billion won, have any advice for young people? CEO Kim said, “I consider the principle of the following to be important,” and added, “You need to develop the habit of carefully considering who, when, where, what, how, and why.” “I do,” he answered. He said, “Nothing goes well from the beginning. “Once you set a goal, you need to act quickly,” he emphasized. He also said, “Failure comes not once, but many times, so it is important to have an attitude of accepting failure.” He added, “You can achieve the results you want only by improving your mistakes and challenging yourself again.” Choi Seong-min, a member of the Robot & Systems team, is working on robot design. Suwon = Reporter Hyunjoo Yoon, CEO Kim said, “It takes about 5 years on average to develop a semiconductor robot.” He added, “It is not immediately put into the field once the product is released, but it can be commercialized only through several performance improvements, such as receiving complaints when entering the line.” He said. In other words, if you focus and persevere in any field, you can taste the fruit of success.
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