Li-Cycle Cuts 17% of Staff as Costs Mount

Li-Cycle Holdings (NYSE:LICY) is a Toronto-based company that is engaged in the lithium-ion battery resource recovery and lithium-ion battery recycling business in North America. Shares of this lithium stock have soared 116% month-over-month as of close on Wednesday, March 27. Meanwhile, the stock is now up 53% in the year-to-date period. Li-Cycle stock is still down 81% year over year. The stock will need to pick up steam if it hopes to retain its position on the New York Stock Exchange going forward.

On Tuesday, March 26, the company announced that it would proceed with a staff cut of 17% - or 60 employees. Li-Cycle has struggled with construction cost overruns at its Rochester, New York battery processing facility. In 2023, the U.S. Energy Department provided the company a conditional $375 million loan for the facility. However, costs have nearly doubled for the construction project to $960 million. That cost overrun, in addition to other technical complexities, has hit the stock hard and forced the company to seek cash from Glencore, a Swiss commodity trading and mining company.

Despite its struggles, investors still have reason to be optimistic. The global lithium-ion battery recycling market was valued at US$3.79 billion in a report from Fortune Business Insights in 2023. That same report projected that the market would grow to US$23.2 billion by 2032. That would represent a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22% over the forecast period.

Shares of Li-Cycle are trading in favourable value territory compared to its peers at the time of this writing. In March 2024, the company reported full-year 2023 revenue of $18.3 million – up 11% compared to 2022.