STI Conductus 2G HTS Wire Pilot Production Equipment Now Operational

- Shipped first wire completely fabricated in STI's Austin facility -

- Increased customer requests for Conductus wire -

- Met product requirements for low temperature application -

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 21, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Superconductor Technologies Inc. ("STI") SCON, a world leader in the development and production of high temperature superconducting (HTS) materials and associated technologies, has successfully completed the installation of its equipment suite required for production of Conductus^® 2G HTS wire at its Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence facility in Austin during the fourth quarter of 2012 as planned. At this time all 2G HTS wire pilot production equipment is operational and in various stages of process implementation.

All three machines required for production of Conductus 2G HTS wire are operational and achieving expected functional milestones.

• The IBAD system, delivered in April 2012, has completed process implementation. It is now being used in full production and achieving record results as of January 2013.
• The SDP system, delivered in November 2012, has also completed initial process implementation. The initial pilot production runs of 50 meter lengths and 10 centimeter widths were completed in early February 2013.
• The RCE-CDR system, delivered in December 2012, has been installed with first process run completed in February 2013.

"We continue to increase our customer activities, which are reflected by the expanding requests for Conductus wire," said Jeff Quiram, STI's president and chief executive officer. "At this time, the current customer requests will consume all available supply of Conductus wire that we can produce through the first few quarters of 2013. Recently we shipped the first Conductus wire completely fabricated in our Austin facility, and it is being tested for a superconducting motor application. In January, we also achieved product requirements for a low temperature, high infield superconducting magnet application by achieving greater than 2500 amps per centimeter at 4 Kelvins. In addition, we passed testing in magnetic field strengths greater than 14 Tesla."

"As we have discussed previously, we continue to focus on providing longer lengths of wire for our demonstration cable partner," Quiram continued. "We believe that these efforts will be greatly aided by the turn up of our new RCE-CDR system in Austin. We remain committed to providing the wire as quickly as possible to complete that project."

Investor Conference Call

STI intends to release its fourth quarter and year-end 2012 financial results before the market opens on Thursday, March 7, 2013. STI will host a conference call and simultaneous webcast that same day at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time / 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time to discuss its results. Participating in the call will be Jeff Quiram, president and chief executive officer; and Bill Buchanan, vice president and chief financial officer.

To listen to the call live, please dial 1-877-941-6009 at least 10 minutes before the start of the conference. International participants may dial 1-480-629-9819. The conference ID is 4600818. The call will be webcast and can be accessed from the "Investor Relations" section of the company's website at http://www.suptech.com. A telephone replay will be available until midnight ET on March 12^th by dialing 1-800-406-7325 or 1-303-590-3030, and entering pass code 4600818. A replay will al so be available at the web address above.

About Superconductor Technologies Inc. (STI)

Superconductor Technologies Inc., headquartered in Austin, TX, has been a world leader in HTS materials since 1987, developing more than 100 patents as well as proprietary trade secrets and manufacturing expertise. For more than a decade, STI has been providing innovative interference elimination and network enhancement solutions to the commercial wireless industry. The company is currently leveraging its key enabling technologies, including RF filtering, HTS materials and cryogenics to develop energy efficient, cost-effective and high performance second generation (2G) HTS wire for existing and emerging power applications, to develop applications for advanced RF wireless solutions and innovative adaptive filtering, and for government R&D.  Superconductor Technologies Inc.'s common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the ticker symbol "SCON." For more information about STI, please visit http://www.suptech.com.

The Superconductor Technologies Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=3963

Safe Harbor Statement 

Statements in this press release regarding our business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are inherently subject to uncertainties and other factors, which could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. These factors and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: our limited cash and a history of losses; the limited number of potential customers; the limited number of suppliers for some of our components and our HTS wire; there being no significant backlog from quarter to quarter; our market being characterized by rapidly advancing technology; overcoming technical challenges in attaining milestones to develop and manufacture commercial lengths of our HTS wire; customer acceptance of our HTS wire; fluctuations in product demand from quarter to quarter; the impact of competitive filter products, technologies and pricing; manufacturing capacity constraints and difficulties; our ability to raise sufficient capital to fund our operations (whether through our equity sales agreement, registered direct offerings or otherwise), and the impact on our strategic wire initiative of any inability to raise such funds; the impact of any such financing activity on the level of our stock price; our ability to fully utilize our equity sales agreement as a source of future financings and the dilutive impact of any sales under such agreement, whether due to market conditions, our ability to satisfy various conditions required to sell shares under the agreement, the sales agent's performance of its obligations under the agreement or otherwise; the impact on the level of our stock price, which may decline, in connection with the sales under the equity sales facility, registered direct offerings or otherwise; and local, regional, and national and international economic conditions and events and the impact they may have on us and our customers, such as the current worldwide recession.

Forward-looking statements can be affected by many other factors, including, those described in the "Business" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections of STI's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011 and in STI's other public filings. These documents are available online at STI's website, www.suptech.com, or through the SEC's website, www.sec.gov. Forward-looking statements are based on information presently available to senior management, and STI has not assumed any duty to update any forward-looking statements.