The Magnis Energy Technologies Ltd (ASX: MNS) share price edged higher on Wednesday. This came as the company provided an update on its New York lithium-ion battery plant.
At market close, the battery technology company's shares finished up 1.16%, trading at 44 cents apiece.
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Magnis set to achieve semi-autonomous production
Investors appear pleased with the company's progress to date, sending the Magnis share price into positive territory on Wednesday.
According to its release, Magnis advised that recent activities have led to an overall project completion of 47% at the iM3NY Battery Plant.
Magnis is a major shareholder with roughly a 60% stake in iM3NY, a New York based Lithium-ion Battery plant.
The iM3NY plant is fully-funded to begin commercial production and scale up to 1.8 GWh, starting in the first-half of 2022. This will make it one of the largest players in the United States lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing market.
Currently, China is the global leader on lithium-ion batteries, however, the United States is quickly closing the gap.
The company noted that facility customisation work continues to gain momentum with equipment now being moved onto the factory floor. In terms of size, the factory floor is approximately 22,000 square metres, which is greater than three professional football fields.
The iM3NY team collaborated with Ramboll to continue advancing the lithium battery plant's design feed information. This includes progressing on a number of detailed engineering design works to bring the project online.
Major construction works have been progressing and are expected to run through into early 2022.
Process equipment vendors will also be assisting with the installation of their respective equipment.
In the coming days, it's anticipated that semi-autonomous production will begin with a batch of cells being produced.
Magnis chair, Frank Poullas commented:
We are excited by the progress made and the customer pipeline that is growing. We look forward to semi-automatous production beginning soon which will be a major milestone for the project.
Magnis share price snapshot
Over the last 12 months, the Magnis share price has soared 142%. This came off the back of a lithium-ion battery supply award by the United States government to Magnis' partner, C4V.
On valuation grounds, Magnis presides a market capitalisation of roughly $425.67 million, with approximately 978.56 million shares on its registry.
