Li-Cycle, the Canadian company planning a major expansion of its facilities in Rochester, announced on Monday that it is “pausing construction work” on its Rochester Hub project, pending a comprehensive review of the strategy for the project.
The company, which recycles lithium-ion batteries, has two facilities at Eastman Business Park. One is a “spoke” facility that employs about 40 people. Recycled material then goes to the “hub” facility and is processed to create battery-grade lithium, nickel and cobalt.
U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said last February that Li-Cycle had been awarded a $375 million federal loan that will help create 270 jobs at the hub facility.
The statement released by Li-Cycle on Monday said that the company has recently experienced escalating construction costs, and because of that, its Board of Directors decided to pause construction work on the Rochester Hub, pending a review of the project.
The company said it continues to work closely with the U.S. Dept. of Energy in connection with that $375 million loan commitment.
Vinnie Esposito, Senior Vice President for Regional Economic Development in New York state, said that the Li-Cycle announcement pausing construction “was surprising to a lot of us.” And Esposito said that state officials will “try to figure out what their plans are to get back on track,” noting that the state has incentives available for Li-Cycle if they hire the number of people they have committed to hiring.
“They've made a lot of progress over there in the last few months, so I'm hoping they will find a way to get initial phases of it operational. And we'll certainly talk to them and try to help find ways to do that," said Esposito.
Rep. Joe Morelle (D-25), said that he was shocked to hear about Li-Cycle stopping the construction work on the expansion.
“You know, I'm going to dig down on this. I mean, we've known the increase in construction costs have been going on since the pandemic," said Morelle. "But we'll do whatever we can, we're going to safeguard public money. I hope it's a successful project. Because I think it's not only great technology, it was the opportunity for a lot of people to get jobs in Rochester.”
Li-Cycle also said that as previously mentioned, engineering and procurement for the project are largely complete, with the current focus having been on construction activities at the site at the Eastman Business Park.
The halt in construction at the Li-Cycle plant came so abruptly that according to Joe Morelle Jr. who heads up the construction trade group Unicon, about 200 workers showed up at the site Monday only to find out that construction on the project had been halted.
This story includes reporting by WXXI's Brian Sharp.
