Furukawa Electric to Acquire All Shares in SuperPower, 2G HTS Wire Maker

Furukawa Electric announced on Monday the firm acquires all shares of SuperPower Inc., U.S. supplier of yttrium-based (so-called second generation “2G”) high temperature superconducting (HTS) wire. Furukawa Electric concluded a share purchasing contract with Philips of the Netherlands, which is the parent company of SuperPower. The share acquisition cost is unrevealed. The contract will become effective after required conditions are fulfilled including approvals of U.S. government.

Furukawa Electric will become the world only group to develop and produce 2G HTS products from wire to components integrally by this acquisition. Furukawa Electric Group projects to raise the business revenue to 10 billion yen per annum in 2016 by supplying 2G HTS wire for HTS power cables, large-size wind power generators, superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) and other HTS applications as well as enlarging 2G HTS component business.

Only two companies have realized commercial production of 2G HTS wire in the world at present. SuperPower is one of the companies with 2G HTS wire production capacity at 400 kilometers per year. The firm with 59 employees posted approximately 400 million yen of annual revenue in 2010. Furukawa Electric has mainly produced and sold low temperature superconducting wire and the current annual revenue is 1-2 billion yen.

Furukawa Electric plans to expand SuperPower’s 2G HTS wire capacity to 2,000 km per year in five years after the share acquisition and to start commercial sales of 2G HTS power cable in two years. The other supplier of 2G HTS wire, American Superconductor is said to have productive capacity at 700 km per year.