The Magnis Energy Technologies Ltd (ASX: MNS) share price is soaring today on lithium battery production news.
Shares in the ASX lithium company have leapt 35.6% and are now trading at 49.5 cents. In comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Materials (ASX: XMJ) is down 0.54% at the time of writing.
Let's take a look at what Magnis Energy reported today.
Lithium news
Magnis announced commercial production has started at the Imperium3 New York lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant (iM3NY) in New York.
Magnis and joint venture partner Charge CCCV LLC (C4V) are the major shareholders in iM3NY, a New York-based independent lithium-ion cell manufacturer.
The plan is to produce several thousand lithium-ion cells in the next month for quality assurance. By the end of 2023, annual production levels are expected to jump to 1GWh.
This will climb to 15,000 cells per day when the plant hits a capacity of 1.8GWh.
The factory floor is about 22,000 sqm — equivalent to more than the size of three soccer fields.
Management commentary
Magnis chair Frank Poullas welcomed the news, saying:
After many years of hard work by everyone involved, today represents a momentous
occasion for Magnis, its partner C4V and the wider iM3NY team.With previously announced binding sales agreements, I look forward to updating the market as we move towards generating revenues and increasing the capacity of the plant to meet some of the huge demand currently experienced for lithium-ion batteries especially in the United States.
iM3NY CEO Chaitanya Sharma added:
The iM3NY team has put in a huge effort to achieve this major milestone of commercial
production with iM3NY being North America's only pure home-grown battery plant.
Magnis share price snapshot
The Magnis share price is down 14% year to date, although it has climbed 23.7% in the past 12 months.
Magnis shares have surged more than 65% in the past month.
Based on the current share price, Magnis has a market capitalisation of around $475 million.
