For investors of this stock, it will come down to more patience, but Grampa's comments below are promising, but time will tell.
"Several weeks ago, we announced our introduction of numerous alloys to support the amorphous alloy for our liquid metal market. This market and application base is expected to grow over the next several years, as the supply chain and technology to support it is becoming more robust, as we plan to play an integral role as the alloy supplier to this market."
"What's interesting is liquid metal has been out there for quite a while. It hasn't really gone anywhere, and I think the fundamental reason is, that there hasn't been a robust supply chain, meaning that -- it’s a nascent [ph] product, you need reliable high volume die casting technology, is really what's required. And that's -- we have developed the alloys to support this die casting technology, which actually, alloy development is very critical to help the reliability and the production of high volumes. So what's happening is, I think with our technology advancements, in combination with technology advancement in die casting, we are now set up in a total supply chain, that we can actually develop these markets more robustly."
"It has to evolve than normal cycles of qualifications, people [indiscernible], always takes a little bit longer upfront, and then you can start to play mental games with yourself, that's going to be much larger; because depending on where the product ultimately goes, it can go in some very high volume size applications and if the metal is very attractive, it has forming characteristics that require minimizing or eliminating machining, and has strength and stiffness ratios that are out of this world."
Grampa and Materion might be playing it safe, but his choice of words seem to convey that he knows this can be very promising:
"So [indiscernible] with yourself of how big it could get, I'd rather not do that, I'd rather say that, in the near term, I feel comfortable that the supply chain is coming around right now, that we can support and early market developments of this product, and I see a long term horizon that's pretty exciting. But in the short term, I would say that over the next several years, we could develop the market in the $5 million to $10 million range, and then beyond that, it could be much more exciting than that. That's practicality."
This was interesting dialogue (sounds like Steipp avoiding Apple questions, doesnt it?):
Analyst
"If I remember the history of this one, lots of patents were bought by Apple actually from liquid metals. Now, would you be making the material for Apple or not at this point?"
Grampa
"It would depend on Apple's decision making process."
Analyst
"That's not final yes, right?"
Grampa
"It would depend on Apple's decision making process."
Analyst
"Okay. I understand...."
Good dialogue...but remember this is still a penny stock, it either goes somewhere, assets are bought or goes kapoot! However, there is a feeling for me, that this 2nd time around things look more promising...and YES, we need revenues to support us going forward - so lets see what update LQMT gives in March; then we can pass more judgement.
