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Plus as I understand it, much less battery casing (weight) is required due to the very safe design of the batteries. This is why the puncture tests last year were so important. The lighter the car the further it goes.

This is impressive news. Not only do the completed trials prove that Ilika can readily produce its SSB with the types of mixing and coating equipment widely used in existing gigafactories, but it also shows that the quality of product made on large scale equipment actually improves with scale.

Also confirmation that the delivery of the 1.5MWh solid-state battery assembly line from Mpac planned for H2 CY 2025 is on track. The assembly line will be capable of producing Ilika's Goliath prototype large-format pouch cells to automotive original equipment manufacturers and Tier 1 suppliers.

A far worse scenario for the world will be if China invades Taiwan, cutting off the supply of semi-conductors.

The notion of China invading a territory it considers its own, is far less extreme than the idea of the USA taking over Canada or Greenland.

I note the White House has said China tariffs are actually 145% and China has increased their tariffs on the US to 125%.

The greatest hope for an end to this madness is the reaction of the bond market and the CEOs of banks and the richest companies who are all rich because of global trade and cheap Asian labour.

Thanks Dougerboy, I appreciate your response.

In my work I often carry out Risk assessments and for each risk identified, a mitigation strategy is required. The Itaconix risk management strategy sounds wooly and I hope there is a lot more to it.

What concerns me more is that there was very little reference to this risk a year ago. Now people can argue this risk is down to the new POTUS but that simply isn’t true. Covid from China should have been a massive wake up call but it seems it wasn’t.

These new tariffs will have an impact on future trading updates and delay the road to profitability. Reasons why:

Best case scenario: Tariffs on China removed. However, all these tariff wars are likely to have impacted on the SPARX program which rely on the creation of multi-national partnerships. Business confidence is damaged.

Mid-case scenario: A lower level of tariff is eventually negotiated between US and China. Any increase in raw material cost will affect gross margin as not all the cost can be passed on to customers. This will slow the path to profitability, combined with afore mentioned SPARX impact.

Worst case scenario: A complete de-coupling of trade with China. We all know China is the cheapest for goods. If the company can source raw material elsewhere it will be more expensive and given that gross margins are critical it could make the business untenable.

Whichever the outcome I think upcoming trading updates have a high risk of downgrading the forecast revenue and delaying the path to profitability.

In the recently published Annual Report for 2024 there in the Principle Risks and Uncertainties section, there is a long paragraph on page 14 titled “Government and Geopolitical Risk”. It describes the risk and potential impact of tariffs. It goes on to describe the company’s approach to managing this risk.

I am not going to selectively quote or give my opinion as I think each investor should read this for their own benefit and make their own interpretation. Please see link below.

The only observation I will note is that this section has grown significantly from the corresponding section in the 2023 Annual Report and investors may wish to compare both the 2023 and 2024 report.

https://www.itaconix.com/hubfs/assets/resources/annual-reports/ITX-PLC-Annual-Report-2024.pdf?hsLang=en

Graeme Purdy will be on a panel discussing Solid State vs the Competition: Which Battery Technology Will Lead the Charge on Monday 5th May at 14:30

https://en.automasterminds.de/

AJP I apologise if you think my opinion is melodramatic but I am extremely frustrated at the situation, and not for the first time. I truly hope your optimism wins the day. GLA.

As predicted 😁….

3 month suspension of reciprocal tariffs.

Tariffs suspended on everyone except China who has been increased to 125%. My US stocks are flying but Itaconix looks screwed. On the one hand I feel for the company as clearly this is political BUT I would ask what lessons were learnt from Covid? None it seems. Having your raw material reliant on one country is high risk and now good honest investors will pay the price.

Well the unthinkable has happened. I really thought by now the tariffs would have been pulled on most countries and progress with China underway. Sadly that is not the case and we now have the reality of 104% tariffs on US to China trade.

I can’t even get a firm price on selling any Itaconix shares 😖

If they need to go down this road then realistically they need a manufacturing partner in the EU as 6m isn’t going to buy them a new plant and equipment with running costs. It’s taken them this long to get to the point of turning a profit with their existing facility. Surely finding another source of raw material should be their first option. You would think this is something they have been looking at?

I know I should be trimming my holding to reduce my exposure but my average is 135p so I really don’t want to take a 25-30% loss. Next 24 hours will decide matters.

China’s staunch defence this morning and refusal to be bullied had Bloomberg talking about trade completely decoupling between US and China. One gets the feeling that Trump doesn’t want to do a deal with China as his demands are so outrageous (104% is the latest made up tariff for China consisting of 3 separate tariffs of 20%, 34% and 50%).

If this happens the question for Itaconix is this:

How much raw material reserve does the company have e.g. 1 year?

How long would it take Itaconix to develop alternative source?

If there is no progress and the new tariffs kick in tomorrow then we desperately need Itaconix to guide us on the above points.

After this afternoon’s latest announcement the next 24 - 48 hours are going to be make or break. Tariffs of this magnitude are designed to make trade between the US and China virtually impossible.

“US President Donald Trump says he will impose additional tariffs on China, from Tuesday, if Beijing does not withdraw its 34% retaliatory tariffs on the US. The additional tariffs on Beijing would be of 50%, Trump says.”

In addition to the concessions he wants from countries, he also wants lower interest rates (cheap money). There is already talk of a possible emergency FED meeting this week to reduce interest rates.

If I wanted to play high stakes poker on tariffs then I would give the world 1 week to negotiate whilst I went and played golf all weekend. Sound familiar?

That’s why I’m 75% confident the reciprocal tariffs will either be delayed or watered down. In which case the current sell off is the opportunity of a life time.

Of course I could be wrong.

So the company has the time to put out a mundane RNS on options but no RNS to reassure investors. The global upheaval is not their fault in any way but they could help ease our worries with some positively worded statement.

Tomorrow is looking like another grim day for the stock market 😩

Going into the new trading week it looks very unlikely there will be any deescalation of Trump Vs China as they don’t even appear to be talking to each other.

We therefore need Itaconix to come out with some of reassuring statement before the market opens.

The only country to worry about is China. Every other country / region will deal soon. China will eventually deal but it will take time. They have a lot of mouths to feed and need the US market.

I can see pros and cons of what Trump is doing and there is a genuine problem he is trying to address which essentially boils down to the fact that Labour is much cheaper in Asia.

Ultimately I think deals will be done because if this continues it will collapse economies including China. Remember China has a lot of mouths to feed so they can not afford to loose the US market.

The question for me is how long it will take to do a deal with China? The longer this drags on the greater the fall in stocks and shares will be. Monday will see another fall if there are no signs of progress. At the moment the markets have priced in a 50% chance of recession, so if deals are not done then stock markets still have further to fall.

I remain optimistic but I think there will be more short term pain, so I’m not adding shares until there is real evidence that deals are coming.