(Reuters) -Australia’s Novonix said on Tuesday that a unit of automaker Stellantis had terminated its offtake agreement with the battery materials supplier, citing an inability to agree on product specifications.
Shares of the company fell as much as 15% to A$0.480, hitting its lowest level since October 3. The stock is eyeing its fourth consecutive session of losses.
The agreement, announced in November 2024, had outlined a minimum supply of 86,250 tonnes of battery-grade graphite over six years, with a target volume of up to 115,000 tonnes.
The material was supposed to be shipped from Novonix’s Riverside facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Stellantis’ cell manufacturing partners in North America.
The Brisbane-headquartered firm said it was “disappointed” by Stellantis’ decision but remains focused on its commitments to other clients, including Panasonic Energy and Volkswagen’s battery unit PowerCo.
Stellantis, the maker of Jeep, Fiat and Chrysler, among others, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The company is also continuing to provide samples to 15 current and potential customers across battery and industrial applications.
Last year, Novonix clinched a conditional $754.8 million loan commitment from the U.S. government to partially fund a proposed graphite plant in Tennessee.
At full capacity, the proposed facility in Chattanooga is expected to produce about 31,500 metric tons a year of synthetic graphite, which can support the production of lithium-ion batteries for about 325,000 EVs each year, it had said.
(Reporting by Rajasik Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)
