Li-Cycle

Li-Cycle is a Canadian lithium-ion battery manufacturer and a recycler offering technology solutions to recycle end-of-life batteries. The company offers two proprietary technologies, one is its “Mechanical Safe Size Reduction” technology, which converts lithium-ion batteries into inert products with no solid or liquid waste, and the other is its “Hydrometallurgical Processing” technology that recovers and recycles battery-grade lithium, nickel, cobalt, and other materials. Li-Cycle claims that it has the potential to recover more than 95% of the constituent materials in lithium-ion batteries. 

As of April 2023, the company operates facilities in Ontario (5,500 tons of annual lithium-ion battery processing capacity); Arizona , (18,000 tons annual lithium-ion battery processing capacity); and Alabama (10,000 tons per year). Furthermore, the company also has four facilities under construction : Rochester (35,000 tons of black mass per year,), Germany (30,000 tons per year), Norway (10,000 tons per year, 2024) , and France (10,000 tons per year, 2024). Construction of the New York facility (18,000 tons of annual processing capacity) was paused in October 2023 pending a review of the project. The company has reached a total lithium-ion battery processing capacity of 51,000 tons per year across all four operating spokes in North America, and plans to reach a total of 81,000 tons per year across spokes in North America and Europe by the end of 2023.

Key customers and partnerships

In December 2021, the company signed a non-binding letter of intent to receive nickel-bearing battery scraps from LG Energy Solutions (LGEC) and recycle them into nickel sulfate to supply to both LGEC and LG Chem Ltd (LGC). The supply would be able to power 300,000 high-performing electric vehicles. In addition to this, LGEC and LGC invested USD 25 million each in Li-Cycle. The investment is likely to support Li-Cycle in scaling battery production to keep up with the growing demand for lithium-ion batteries. Similarly, the company also secured USD 200 million in investment from metals and mining firm Glencore and also signed a supply deal with the latter. 

To enter Europe and build a plant in Norway, Li-Cycle formed a joint venture (JV) with Eco Stor (European battery manufacturer and recycler) and Morrow Batteries (Norwegian battery manufacturer) in January 2022. During the same time, the company also extended its partnership with Ultium Cells LLC (a joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solution) to construct the Ohio lithium-ion battery recycling plant. 

In November 2022, the company forged a global partnership with VinES, a battery and cell pack manufacturer and a member company of Vingroup, the largest private conglomerate in Vietnam. As per the partnership companies will explore global recycling solutions for VinES and VinFast – a global electric vehicle manufacturer that is also part of Vingroup. 

The company also signed a definitive agreement with KION Group , a German multinational manufacturer of industrial trucks and supply chain solutions, to recycle lithium-ion batteries from KION’s global brands using Li-Cycle’s proprietary submerged shredding technology until 2030.

Funding and financials

The company started trading on the NYSE in August 2021, via a SPAC deal with Peridot raising USD 580 million in gross proceeds. The company reached a pro forma equity value of USD 1.55 billion following the SPAC deal. 

Li-Cycle reported a revenue of USD 5.9 million for the two-month transition period ending December 31, 2022, 2.1x higher the revenue for the same period in 2021. The company’s adjusted EBITDA loss was USD 17.8 million, 2.1x the loss in the same period of 2021.

In February 2023 , Li-Cycle received a conditional commitment from the US Department of Energy Loan Programs Office for a USD 375 million loan to fund their first commercial hydrometallurgical resource recovery facility located near Rochester, New York.