ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Will Rochester ever become the epicenter of lithium-ion battery recycling? It’s looking less likely.  The company that promised to build the hub here was just delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.

Li-Cycle was in the middle of building a $700 million, 62 acre North American hub at the Eastman Business Park in Rochester when it halted construction back in September of 2023.  At the time, the company said it had cash flow problems and couldn’t handle the escalating construction costs.  Since then, no further work has been done at the site. 

On Wednesday, the New York Stock Exchange announced its staff had determined to commence proceedings to delist the common shares of Li-Cycle Holdings Corp.  

The company said in a press release on Friday that its common shares have been approved to trade on the OTCQX® Best Market. 

News10NBC spoke with George Conboy, Chairman of Brighton Securities, about the significance of Li-Cycle’s move to OTOCOX:

Jennifer Lewke (News10NBC):  “How significant is being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange?”

George Conboy: “Being delisted from the NYSE is a meaningful thing, it means the company wasn’t able to maintain a consistent price per share of a dollar, what that really means is it’s a penny stock…They’ve been losing a fortune, quarter after quarter, it’s not a company that could do what it wanted to do without government assistance.”

In a statement, the President of Li-Cycle says, “We remain focused on providing value for all stakeholders and advancing our key priorities, especially securing a complete funding package for our Rochester hub project and satisfying funding conditions for the first advance under our U.S. Department of Energy loan facility.”

But before the DOE will provide the loan, Li-Cycle has to settle the debts it has already on the Rochester project and show it has the financial means to see the project through to completion.

George Conboy: “Even before the recent election it was a very doubtful proposition, with the election, the idea that the feds are going to throw hundreds of millions of dollars to some money-losing Canadian company in Rochester to recycle batteries, seems unlikely and without those federal dollars, the public market is not giving money to a company that can’t demonstrate success. 

Jennifer Lewke: “How do you think they stayed afloat between then and now?”

George Conboy: “They did get an infusion of capital from Glencore, Glencore is a giant, worldwide mining company and Glencore no doubt saw something in Li-Cycle’s technology that might be useful to them but they haven’t ponied up a lot of capital to save this project, they’ve just put in enough to have an influence at what happens at Li-Cycle…So, there is a player out there with an interest in Li-Cycle but they show no signs of rescuing this hub,”

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