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The important part of this morning's STI update ?5

13:07 22-Jun-15


This morning, Superconductor Technologies (SCON) announced a new record of over 900 Amps for a single wire from its production system.  This is significant because previously the best performance was coming from the smaller pilot system.  However, the most important news is the last paragraph of the announcement, which has been completely overlooked by the media:
STI continues to work closely with customers to complete Stage 2 qualification testing of Conductus wire for superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL), cable and magnet applications. Since reporting first quarter results on May 12, 2015, STI has shipped the next round of finished wire to SFCL customers. The customer fabricating the high power superconducting cable demonstration project informed STI that, due to other lab commitments, it now expects to complete its evaluation in August.
SCFL applications are STI's nearest term revenue opportunity, apart from the legacy mobile business.  My understanding is that the tech problems they still have to solve for fault limiters shouldn't be that hard, but sometimes a fundamentally different process creates fundamentally different behaviour and thus problems.  Given the balance sheet, the expected August evaluation makes it a pretty close call as to whether or not STI would have to do another capital raise before getting getting a new order.

I also recall that there were still warrants outstanding, with a $1 strike?  Those were set to expire sometime this summer and that may have more to do with the recent drop below that level than funding concerns.