NEW YORK: Battery recycler Li-Cycle plans to lay off 17% of its employees - including three senior executives - as it pares its ambitious global growth plans to save cash and focus on building a crucial processing facility in New York.

The cuts are a tacit acknowledgement by the Toronto-based company that its rapid growth in recent years - with facilities announced across North America, Europe and Asia - was unsustainable, given the high costs and technical challenges associated with building what is essentially a new global market for electric vehicle battery recycling.

In all, 60 employees will lose their jobs. The company was still informing affected staff about the cuts on Tuesday afternoon.

Li-Cycle, which plans to record an US$8.3mil severance charge this quarter, will have roughly 200 employees after the cuts.

While Li-Cycle posted its highest quarterly revenue ever during 2023, the company has struggled with construction cost overruns at its Rochester, New York, battery processing facility.

The US Energy Department said last year that it would conditionally lend the company US$375mil for that facility, but cost estimates have nearly doubled to US$960miln.

That massive cost overrun - along with technical complexities of recycling technology the company planned to use - had hammered Li-Cycle’s stock and forced it to seek a cash infusion from Glencore.

 - Reuters