Kona I metal card orders in 2026 top all of 2025

Kona I said its domestic metal card orders in the first nine months of 2026 already exceeded its full-year 2025 order volume, according to datanet.co.kr. The company said orders for January-September 2026 came in 32% higher than the total for all of 2025.

The smart card manufacturer said orders in the period rose 52% year-on-year and reached about 6.8 times its full-year 2023 order volume. The number of financial institutions ordering metal cards from Kona I grew from 4 in 2023 to 8 in 2026.

Kona I also plans an offline pop-up event next month where consumers can see and touch premium Kona Card products, including metal cards and jewelry cards.

Metal cards since 2018

Kona I entered the metal card market in 2018 and has grown to second place in the global metal card market, the company said. Last year it supplied more than 7 million metal cards worldwide.

Domestic metal card order volume grew 2.2 times year-on-year in 2024 and 2.4 times in 2025. Since the 2000s Kona I has supplied IC smart cards to major Korean card companies, producing chip operating systems (COS) through to finished cards.

Card companies are shifting toward premium cards as profitability in their core payment business weakens due to lower merchant fees and funding cost burdens.