Novonix Ltd (ASX: NVX) shares are starting the week with a bang.
In morning trade, the ASX battery materials and technology stock is up 20% to 51 cents.
This compares favourably to the ASX All Ordinaries index, which is up 0.85% at the time of writing.
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Why are Novonix shares shooting higher?
Investors have been fighting to get hold of the ASX stock this morning after responding very positively to the release of a big announcement.
According to the release, Novonix has delivered its first mass production, commercial-grade sample of synthetic graphite for industrial applications. This is to one of North America's largest value-added carbon processors with "a global market reach."
The ASX battery materials stock advised that it provided an industrial-grade mass production sample of specified products for final qualification for use in various industrial applications.
It notes that industrial-grade product qualification is fast and flexible and enables a faster path to market than battery-grade synthetic graphite. Any target supply volumes will be further defined once final product qualification has been completed and a definitive supply agreement has been established.
Riverside facility
The company is feeling very positive about its Riverside facility. It notes that the Tennessee-based facility is poised to become the first large-scale production site dedicated to high-performance synthetic graphite for the battery, defence, and industrial sectors in North America.
Mass production is due to start next year for its lead customer, Panasonic.
But it won't be stopping there. To meet increasing customer demand, the ASX battery materials stock has plans for its second synthetic graphite manufacturing plant, also in, Tennessee, known as the Enterprise South location.
Together, these facilities will give Novonix a total production capacity of over 50,000 tonnes per year.
Commenting on the milestone, the company's CEO, Mike O'Kronley, said:
We're pleased to have hit this significant manufacturing milestone. This demonstrates that industrial-grade products can be produced using NOVONIX's proprietary continuous graphitization furnace technology at a mass production scale and is another step towards bringing our battery-grade materials to market.
As we continue to scale our facility, the ability to provide volumes to markets outside the battery space diversifies our product portfolio and provides the opportunity to increase our planned production at Riverside for 2026.
Novonix shareholders will undoubtedly be pleased with today's gain. However, it is worth noting that despite today's big move, its shares are still down 34% since the start of the year and a whopping 95% from their 2021 high.
